IN AN ELEPHANT 

CORRAL 

AND OtHErTaLES OF 

WEST AFRICAN 
EXPERIENCES 



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In an Elephant Corral 

And Other Tales of 
West African Experiences 



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In an Elephant Corral 

And Other Tales of 
Jf^est African Experiences 



BY 

ROBERT HAMILL NASSAU, M.D., S.T.D. 

Forty-five Years a Kesident of Africa. 
Author of " Fetishism in West Africa," " Where Animals Talk," 
and other books. 




NEW YORK 

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1912 



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Copyright, 1912, by 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 



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Tale VIII. 
Tale IX. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Transformed Matriclde i 

Nguva's Chain 6 

In an Elephant Corral . . . ^ , . . 22 

Upset by a Hippopotamus 40 

My Fight with Nyare 49 

Gorilla-Hunting 62 

UvENGWA : A Vampire 91 

1. Two Facts: (i) Ponji's Wife 

(2) Joba's Wife 

2. Two Fictions: (i) Ikedede 

(2) Nyangwa-Nkwati 

A Psychic Mystery . , 105 

Voices of an African Tropic Night . . . 119 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 



THE TRANSFORMED MATRICIDE 

When I removed, In 1865, from Corisco Is- 
land to Benlta, fifty miles north on the mainland, 
among the many night-voices (more numerous 
than those of the Island) was one which, by its 
plaintiveness, struck me as most distressing. So 
much so, that for some time I thought that resi- 
dence there would be unendurable. It came early 
in the evening, in only certain seasons of the year, 
and did not continue all night. On the night air 
the voice arose low and sad, and, swelling in a 
gradual crescendo for several seconds, as gradu- 
ally sunk in a diminuendo of several seconds, like 
a long drawn-out sigh, an "Ah" ! of grief. The 
cry was probably at a mating-season. 

When I asked the Benita people what it was, 
they persisted in saying that it was a Snail, though 

9 



10 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

none of them admitted ever having seen it in the 
act of making the sound. I laughed at them. 
"Have you ever seen it making that sound?'* 
"No." (Indeed it would be impossible to see it 
in the act; for it cried only at night, or in the 
dusk of the afternoon.) "How do you know, 
then, that it is a Snail?" "Our fathers told us 
so." "Do you know any one who himself has 
seen it?" "No." So I suggested, "Is it not a 
bird?" "No." "Or is it not a monkey or le- 
mur?" "No." 

That conversation I have repeated with hun- 
dreds of natives in the subsequent forty years. 
They all insisted that it was a Snail. Some of 
them showed me a common snail, quite as large 
as one's fist, called Ka. I did not believe that that 
was the creature. For the ordinary Ka was com- 
mon on Corisco Island; and I had not remem- 
bered hearing that voice there; only on the main- 
land. It is very often heard at Libreville in the 
Gaboon. It often seemed to be only a few hun- 
dred yards distant. Never in an open place. Al- 
ways in low grounds, and in dense clumps of 
palm trees and other thickets. Just such places 
as the Ka is accustomed to inhabit. But such 
places are not desirable spots to investigate in the 
dark. There are there certain biting Ants, and 



TRANSFORMED MATRICIDE ii 

probably Serpents, and possibly a Leopard. My 
curiosity often led me to approach the spot from 
which the voice seemed to come. Then it would 
cease; and I would seem to hear it in an almost 
opposite direction. Indeed, I was able to hear 
it from almost any direction which I imagined 
it came from. 

Finally I gave up the effort to make the natives 
admit that the animal was either a bird or a le- 
mur; and I admitted that I could believe it was 
a Chameleon. For, the Chameleon is often seen 
with the skin of its throat very much puffed. It 
is possible for air, slowly expelled by it, to 
make the sound that I had been hearing. And, 
as the sound was heard at only certain seasons of 
the year, I assumed that it was a mating-call. 
However that might be, my native friends still 
insisted that it was a Snail. And they told me 
the legend as to the creature's origin: 

Long ago there was a human child, a boy, the 
only child of its mother: they two living alone. 
One day the boy went out to gather greens for 
his dinner. He gathered a large quantity, and 
brought them to the mother, saying, "Mother, 
cook these for me." A quality of that leaf is that, 
on being cooked, it shrinks so that an apparently 
large number of leaves will make only a small 



12 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

plateful. When the leaves were cooked, and the 
mother called her son to come and eat them, he 
was surprised at their small amount; and he ac- 
cused her of having eaten some herself. In his 
anger he struck her a violent blow. And she 
sank to the ground, dead. 

Then a torrent of remorse overwhelmed the 
matricide, and he cried out, "Ah! me — I — killed 
— my — mother !" 

Njambe the Creator did not put him to death. 
But, as a punishment, he transformed him into 
this big, new kind of snail, that is never able to 
forget its crime, but is always wailing, "Ah! me, 
I killed my mother!" 

The persistence of the natives in asserting that 
the creature is a Snail led me to show a Ka that 
I had preserved in methylated spirits to a scien- 
tific gentleman in the United States. To my sur- 
prise he said that the anatomical structure of the 
Snail's lungs, and their position inside the con- 
volutions of the shell, made at least a possibility 
that the native assertion was true. If it be ana- 
tomically possible for that sound to be made by a 
snail, then it must be by a species larger than any 
I have seen. 

My Batanga friend who gave me this tale told 



TRANSFORMED MATRICIDE 13 

me that the creature was not the common Ka, but 
a rare kind many times larger: *'as large as his 
head," and that he had seen its shell, called Idiba- 
volo. But, if so, why had I not met even with 
the shell in localities where the sounds were heard 
every night for several weeks? He is the only 
person who has told me that he had seen it. And 
he added the following folk-lore account of that 
Snail's first appearance among the Animals. 

Ko (Wild-Rat) originally lived up on the trees. 
She bore children. So she placed them in a small 
box (as a cradle). 

One day she went to seek food on the ground. 
In her absence, Idibavolo (a Giant Snail) came 
and dwelt in that cradle of Wild-Rat's children. 
It began then to cry out, "a! AI^f.^A/ A!A! a!" 

Wild-Rat, terrified at the sound, returned and 
sought in vain a way by which to get back to her 
children. Fearing that strange outcry, she 
dreaded to climb the tree. She was doing noth- 
ing but standing on the ground, and crying out 
for her young ones. She spoke to Etoli (House- 
Rat) , and said, "Go ! and take for me my chil- 
dren!" When House-Rat started there he be- 
came afraid. Then she sent Ihuka (Mouse) ; 
with the same result. And Ngomba (Porcupine), 



14 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

the same way. And Mbalanga (Antelope) was 
the same. Ngweya (Hog), the same. Ngubu 
(Hippopotamus) was the same. Nyati (Ox) 
was the same. Njaku (Elephant) was the same. 
All the beasts were afraid in the same manner. 

Finally Wild-Rat called upon Ngambe (Ig- 
wana), saying, "Go, you, because you are deaf" 
(and therefore could not hear the terrifying out- 
cry). Then all the beasts got angry, and struck 
Igwana (for presuming to go on an errand on 
which they had all failed), saying, "Even we, we 
failed and how much rather that you will fail." 
But Igwana said, "I shall arrive there I" 

Then he climbed up, and discovered an enor- 
mous Snail, such as the Beasts had never before 
seen. He took it, and he lowered it down to the 
ground. He let down also the children of Wild- 
Rat, who then said, "I will not live any longer 
up on the trees." Since that time she stays in 
holes in the ground, afraid of Idibavolo's hu- 
man-like shouts. 



II 



nguva's chain 



In 1877, when I was clearing away the forest 
on the Kangwe hillside, near the site of the pres- 
ent French Lembarene Military Post and Trad- 
ing-houses in the Ogowe River, for the building 
of my first Ogowe station (after abandoning my 
actually first attempt of two years previous at 
Belambila, among the Akele tribe twenty miles 
farther up the river), there came to me for em- 
ployment a heathen young man named Nguva. 

I did not know how old he was. Natives there 
did not know their own age. They had no rec- 
ords of time. I supposed he was at least seven- 
teen. He was rather tall, large-boned, brusque 
of speech, coarse-featured, and of ungainly man- 
ner. I was not pleased with him, but I engaged 
him; partly to gratify his Christian cousin Aveya 
(the favored stroke of my boat's crew), and 
partly because I was needing more laborers in 
pushing the job I had on hand. Nor was I any 

15 



1 6 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

better pleased a few days later, when I bade him 
climb a certain tree and cut off some of its 
branches, at his telling me that he could not and 
would not climb that tree. As to the "could," I 
believed he was lying; as to the "would," I re- 
garded it as simple disobedience. I asked no 
employee to do what I was not able or willing to 
do myself. So I climbed the tree, and then or- 
dered him to follow me. He unwillingly obeyed, 
and bunglingly did the task of lopping the 
branches. I saw that he had no skill. Indeed, I 
regarded him as deficient in common sense. 

I learned, by acquaintance with him subse- 
quently, that I had been unjust in my estimate. 
Not all native Africans can climb trees in our 
style, i.e., "shinning up" a bare trunk; and only 
some can climb in a peculiar method of their own. 
I found that his apparent stupidity was only ig- 
norance and lack of culture. 

He remained in my service. I taught him to 
row (all the natives, male and female, knew how 
to paddle). With his strong arms he became 
useful as one of my boat-men. I taught him the 
use of tools, and he became one of my carpenters. 
He learned to read; not in regular school hours, 
but in the irregular instruction I could give him 
at the two hours noon rest, and at night, after the 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 17 

day's work on the new building was done. Under 
the light of Christianity and the breadth of edu- 
cation, his face grew bright, and the ungainliness 
and unskillfulness disappeared. 

He was one of the first six converts, who were 
organized two years later, in November, 1879, 
into the First Ogowe church, at Kangwe. That 
small ingathering had been made after five years 
of patient toil, diligent itineration, faithful preach- 
ing, and painful trial. As long as the heathen 
saw no apparent fruits of my labor they did not 
oppose it. But, when they saw that first Com- 
munion Table they were angry that their sons re- 
nounced heathen rites. They raged. Satan 
imagined a vain thing. They threatened to kill 
the Christians. 

There was a heathen secret society, called Yasi, 
composed only of men. It enacted laws for the 
government of the community. (That was pre- 
vious to the establishment of French authority on 
that river.) Sometimes those laws were in the 
Interest of good order. Often they were for the 
enforcement of evil customs. Women and lads 
and girls were bound to believe and say that the 
Voice they heard announcing laws for them, from 
time to time, in the Lodge on the edge of the for- 
est at the outskirts of the village, was a Spirit's 



1 8 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

voice. To deny that, or to disobey any order 
made by that Voice, was, in those heathen days, 
punishable with death. Even a parent of an of- 
fender might not plead for his life. Rather, the 
father was expected to be the first to ask Yasi to 
"eat," i.e., to kill, his offending son or daughter; 
and they always were killed by some appointed 
member of the Lodge. 

Those six church members and the thirty other 
young men and lads in my school had discovered 
that what their fathers had asserted about that 
Voice was a lie; for those young men had them- 
selves been initiated into the Society. At first, 
though they then found that they had been de- 
ceived, they had united, under fear of their oath, 
and as heathen, in the interest of the control of 
women and children, in continuing the deception 
on to others. Now, as Christians, they felt they 
should not propagate a lie. I had never preached 
against Yasi by name. I preached only the Gos- 
pel. But now the native chiefs, old men in the 
Society, friendly to me on other matters, began 
to upbraid me. They said: "You are a man 
and know all about this Voice; but you are re- 
vealing it to the women, and are teaching our 
children to disobey us." I replied that I had 
never publicly talked about Yasi ; that it was their 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 19 

own custom, not mine; that the Gospel in the 
hearts of their children, not I, could and would 
change their customs; that their sons were of an 
age to be free to do as they pleased; that I had 
not compelled them to disown Yasi; that them- 
selves had voluntarily done so, because they be- 
lieved it right to do so; that my Gospel taught 
obedience to parents, but not obedience to a lie. 
The old men were displeased; but various inter- 
ests smoothed over the affair, and the subject was 
dropped. 

Later, one day, two of those young men and 
the school-children asked my permission to have 
a mock Yasi procession as a play, on the Mission 
premises. I asked them, "Will you dare to play 
it in your villages?" They replied, "No, our 
fathers would kill us." "Then," I said, "be cau- 
tious ; you are too few. Wait until the number of 
Christians increases. At present your act is not 
necessary for the Truth, and will only exasperate 
our enemies." But they felt bold and safe under 
my protection on the Mission premises ; and they 
unwisely had their play. Instantly the whole sur- 
rounding region was aroused in indignation. The 
Mission premises were boycotted. No native vis- 
ited us, or would sell us labor, provisions or any- 
thing else, except a few very special friends of 



20 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

mine and female relatives of the pupils, who 
secretly at night brought us food. The few 
school-girls were taken away by their fathers, 
and were beaten for having been spectators of 
the play. Threats were made that the white 
man's house would be burned. Reports came 
daily, shouted from passing canoes, that each 
night the premises would be assaulted by the Yasi 
society. And nightly my young men, armed, pa- 
trolled the ground as sentries. 

Some of the frightened school-boys excused 
themselves to their parents that they had been 
only spectators. And the heathen rage limited 
itself to naming, as its objects, the six church mem- 
bers and some half dozen inquirers. It centered 
itself on Nguva as one of the two leaders in the 
play. He trusted that his family loved him well 
enough to save him against Yasi's wrath. And, 
with a generous desire to distract the animosity 
of the neighborhood from me and the school, pro- 
posed going temporarily to his own village. I 
urged him to remain, not believing that he would 
be safe even among his own relatives. But he 
thought that they would fight for him, and that 
the smaller premises of his village would be more 
readily defended than the very extensive outlines 
of Kangwe Hill. 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 21 

So, by night, in a canoe, accompanied by 
Ntyuwa, a school-boy, he slipped down river, fif- 
teen miles, to his village, which was one of a clus- 
ter of hamlets constituting the large town of Ov- 
imbiyano in a district called Wambaliya. My 
judgment was better than theirs. In a few days 
came word that, whatever sympathy or defense 
some of his relatives may have been disposed to 
give him, it had been overbalanced by the senti- 
ment of the other families of the town; and his 
own father had formally "invited" Yasi "to eat" 
him. His cousin Aveya and the other Christians 
looked anxiously for me to say something. I, too, 
was anxious ; desirous to do rightly, but uncertain 
what was right. My silence disappointed them. 
It disappointed also my fellow-missionaries, who 
wished me to rush to arms and fight for the rescue 
of Nguva. My painful silence was misjudged. 
In that little bamboo-palm house (the only white 
dwelling at that time constituting the "Station"), 
besides my sister. Miss Isabella A. Nassau, living 
with me, there were visitors, H. M. Bacheler, 
M.D., and Mrs. Bacheler, two new missiona- 
ries (who expected to take my place two months 
later, when I should go on a furlough for my 
health to America), and two other missionaries 
visiting for a health-change from Baraka, their 



22 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

seaside station, at Libreville, Gaboon, viz., Mrs. 
Jenny Lush Smith, and Mr. Peter Menkel, cap- 
tain of our Mission sailing vessel, the Hudson. 
They were all restive at my delay of a single day; 
the more restive because I alone had charge and 
control of the Station, its funds, and the boat 
Nelly-Howard. This was a perfectly built and 
handsomely equipped six-oared barge, thirty feet 
in length, sent me by a Sabbath School in Jersey 
City, at the suggestion of its Superintendent, my 
University class-mate, Samuel Forman, M.D., 
and named by me for his two little children. 

I reasoned with my associates thus: "We mis- 
sionaries are sent to preach, not to govern politi- 
cally. If persecution comes to the natives they 
must accept it, and stand or fall with their own 
people. The Mission has not the force to act on 
more than the defensive, nor the authority to 
undertake anything, on the offensive. If Nguva 
were on these premises I would defend him and 
the premises. If he is to be defended in his own 
village it must be on the voluntary motion of his 
fellow-natives. Lame and scarcely able to walk 
with boils on my limbs and chigoe sores on my 
feet, I am too weak in health to fight, even if it 
were right. In two months I leave for America. 
If I begin a contest I must stay and carry it out. 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 23 

If I begin and fail, I will not be here; and must, 
from the unpleasant position of defeat, leave the 
responsibility of the defense of the church and the 
Station on Dr. Bacheler's hands; for which, how- 
ever willing he may be to assume it, others may 
blame me for leaving him in a conflict which I 
had precipitated." 

My remarks did not carry conviction, other 
than of my conscientiousness. As a change of 
subject I took my visitors that afternoon on an ex- 
cursion upriver in the Nelly-Howard, on the way 
stopping at the English Trading-house of Hatton 
and Cookson, whose agent, Mr. Thomas Sinclair, 
was a Scotch Presbyterian, and a generous friend 
of the Mission. He, too, had heard of Nguva's 
capture and danger. He had seen him at the 
Lord's Table only three weeks before, and (a 
rare thing with white traders there) had welcomed 
him as a Christian. He, too, friendly as he was 
with me, flushed in anger at my hesitation as to 
what he thought was duty, and he joined in Dr. 
Bacheler's outspoken words as he stood by my 
boat at the water side, "If this boat were mine it 
already would have been on its way to rescue 
Nguva!" 

I was stung; but quietly replied, "Dr. Bacheler, 
the boat is at your service. I do not see it my duty 



24 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

to go. But I will not be your conscience. And, 
as to the Mission funds, as you are soon to suc- 
ceed me, they, too, are at your service." At his 
request I immediately bought ten flint-lock 
"trade" guns from Mr. Sinclair's store. And Dr. 
Bacheler engaged with Mr. Sinclair to be joined 
by him at my house early next morning. I no- 
ticed that my canny Scotch friend did not provide 
a crew from among his many employees. He 
would come with them in his own boat only as far 
as my house. I, in the meanwhile, was to seek 
a crew for the Nelly-Howard. That evening was 
the usual weekly Prayer Meeting. We talked 
about and prayed for Nguva. My position was 
a painful one. Not that I opposed my associates; 
but that I could not see duty as they felt. I stood 
alone. I repeated to the natives the reasons I 
had given to my white companions; and added, 
"I advised against your Yasi play. What I ex- 
pected has happened. Your people probably will 
not kill us white people, unless in sudden anger. 
They will kill you in cold blood. If Dr. Bacheler 
wishes to assume the risks of this matter I will 
not object. You are my employees; but I will 
not order you to go with him. If you volunteer 
I will furnish you with guns and powder." To 
my gratified surprise the young men, to the num- 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 25 

ber of fifteen, jumped to their feet. Among them 
were three visitors, Christians, coast-trade at- 
tendants of my white guests. I selected ten of 
the strongest and most reliable. That night I 
superintended the preparation of the boat, food 
for the journey, tools, weapons, medicines, ban- 
dages for possible wounds, and all the minute de- 
tails of forethought for emergencies. Mr. Men- 
kel had not been enthusiastic; but he was now 
drawn into the expedition, under the wave of ex- 
citement, to take charge of the boat's tiller-ropes. 
The next morning they started early. Dr. Bach- 
eler, Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Menkel, and the ten na- 
tives. Thirty hours later, at noon of the next 
day, they returned, a tired, exhausted party, ac- 
companied by Ntyuwa and Nguva, the latter car- 
rying a heavy chain. They told me their story: 

Pulling rapidly down river the fourteen miles 
to Aveya's village on the left bank, they had 
stopped there to eat at noon. They could get 
very little satisfactory information (the heathen 
suspecting their errand) other than that Nguva 
was still living. After eating, the company went 
one mile farther down to Ovimbiyano, on the right 
bank. The boat's coming was seen, and It was 
recognized; for, it was the only white-painted 
ship's boat In the river (the white traders, up to 



26 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

that time, had traveled in native-made canoes or 
dug-outs). As the Nelly-Howard touched the 
Ovimbiyano landing several armed men jumped 
out of the bushes. But, though with guns in their 
hands, they allowed the stronger force of eight 
guns (five remaining to guard the boat), espe- 
cially protected by the prestige of Winchester 
rifles, the superior weapons of the three white 
men, to pass up the street to the public council- 
house (commonly called "palaver-house"). 
There there was a short discussion of diplomatic 
inquiries by the white men, and equally diplomatic 
replies by the natives, who barely suppressed their 
anger at the evident intention of Nguva's rescue. 
They denied any knowledge of his whereabouts, 
and broke out into savage threats to kill him and 
all his sympathizers native and foreign. Ntyuwa 
was there, as yet free, and ignorant where Nguva 
was; only aware (as he secretly informed Dr. 
Bacheler) that he had been taken away, so that 
the place of his execution might not be known to 
Christian friends. The party started to return 
to the boat-landing in close order, guns in hand; 
for, an excited crowd followed them. Directly 
across the river was Atangino, a village of a 
brother-in-law of Aveya. He suggested that per- 
haps they could obtain information there. But 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 27 

on nearing the boat a little boy whispered to one 
of the party that Nguva was In chains at a certain 
village three miles further down on the left bank. 
They at once decided to go there. As they pushed 
off, Ntyuwa, who, taking advantage of the tempo- 
rary emptiness of the upper part of the town, had 
gathered his few treasures of books and clothing 
In a little box, suddenly emerged from the bushes, 
and sprang Into the boat. He had judged, from 
the fierce words In the "Palaver" house, that he 
was no longer safe there. As a blind to Its des- 
tination the boat sped across the river, as If to 
Atangino; but, being gradually carried down- 
stream by the current, it disappeared behind an 
Intervening point, the Ovimblyano people not sus- 
pecting the party's knowledge of Nguva's locality. 
Coming to that lower village about 3 p. m., the 
hour was favorable, the able-bodied men and 
women not having yet returned from their labors 
in forest and plantation (after their noon rest), 
and therefore few but the aged or children, or 
sick, would be at home. Even they were prob- 
ably lying down, as the day was still hot. The 
landing was steep; a perpendicular clay bank; 
river deep; current strong. The bank was as- 
cended by rude steps cut in its face, to the level 
of the street, ten feet above. 



28 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Dr. Bacheler, who had formerly been a soldier 
in the U. S. Army, planned the details of the at- 
tack. Mr. Menkel, with Ntyuwa (who was the 
only one unarmed) and one other native, were to 
remain in the boat, and be ready for emergencies; 
Dr. B. and three natives were to picket them- 
selves among the plantain trees at the rear of the 
houses on one side of the single street (on which 
all native villages are built) ; Mr. Sinclair, also 
with three natives, to picket at the rear of the 
other side; and Aveya, with the two remaining 
bravest ones, depending on their knowledge of 
the interior of native houses in general, and of 
that village in particular, were to rush with shouts 
up the middle of the street, in order to terrify by 
their suddenness whatever people might be there, 
and also that Nguva might recognize his 
voice, and, by responding, reveal his own exact 
locality. 

The plan succeeded. At that hot hour no one 
happened to be at the open water side, and the 
steep bank hid the boat's presence. The three 
attacking parties rushed shouting to their assigned 
places. Aveya's shout of Nguva's name was in- 
stantly responded to by Nguva himself. The vil- 
lage, as expected, was empty, except of a few 
women and old men; who, surprised and con- 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 29 

fused by the shouts on all sides, dared at first no 
other than vocal resistance. 

Nguva was found chained to a post in a certain 
house, with one foot fast in the wooden stocks. 
A few blows of an axe split the stock; a few more 
blows cut the iron staple that held the chain. Gath- 
ering up the slack of the chain that was yet pad- 
locked to one ankle and to one arm, and brandish- 
ing a sword that was quickly placed in his one 
free hand, with a shout for freedom, he brushed 
aside the old man who was acting guard, and, sur- 
rounded by the now concentrated force of the two 
white men and nine natives, he was hurried into 
the boat, which at once pushed out into the stream. 

Yells of rage followed them from the few old 
men in the village, who now hastened to load 
their guns, and called across the wide stream a 
warning to other villages to intercept the boat. 
(Native Africans can send their voices amazing 
distances.) That warning was carried from vil- 
lage to village on both sides of the river, as the 
boat swept up mid-stream. Shots were fired at it 
from angry crowds that ranged the banks. But 
the native "trade" guns are of short range; the 
river was wide; and the boat was kept in the mid- 
dle, speeding, even against the current, like a lit- 
tle steamer under the strong, long, regular strokes 



30 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

of its crew, flying for their lives. These strokes 
were excited, but were kept under control by the 
white leaders, who forbade the loss of time that 
would have followed had they yielded to their 
crew's wish to return fire to the slugs that fell but 
a little short of them. That return fire was to be 
reserved for the possible necessity of an attack at 
close quarters. Canoes did put off from the shore; 
but the pursuers could not overtake the boat; and 
those who awaited its advance upstream hesitated 
to come too near to the guns (one white and three 
natives on each side of the boat) that protected 
its six oarsmen. With Nguva, there were now 
twelve natives. When the six at the oars began 
to tire, the six gunners sprang to their relief, ex- 
changing guns for oars. So, with unslacked 
speed, the graceful Nelly-Howard ran the gaunt- 
let for miles, until the invariable six o'clock sun- 
set, as the boat passed the limit of the Galwa vil- 
lages, and came to a Fang town. There the party 
was safe to stay all night. Not that the Fang 
have not a superstition as great as, and resembling, 
the Yasi. But they did not hold themselves bound 
to take up the quarrel of another tribe against a 
white man. (The lack of any solidarity among 
African tribes has been a prime factor in the suc- 
cess of their invasion by foreign powers.) 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 31 

The next morning the boat was safely and com- 
fortably rowed home to Kangwe. The presence 
of Mr. Sinclair In the boat was undoubtedly a 
large cause of the success of the expedition. To 
South African natives, the life of almost any 
white man, as a source of wealth to them, is too 
valuable to be destroyed. This explains why 
those natives endure so much from white brutal- 
ity. That brutality or injustice (from their point 
of view) must have become extreme before they 
will make use of the ready knife, spear, arrow, 
poison or gun. And In this case, Mr. Sinclair's life 
was more valuable than the missionary's. But he, 
frightened at the possible consequences to his Ivory 
and rubber trade, if the natives should extend to 
him their boycott of me, hastened to excuse him- 
self to them that the boat was mine, not his. 

Mr. Menkel, who had borne himself efficiently 
In the affray, now began to doubt Its wisdom. 

But Dr. Bacheler still was enthusiastic, and was 
willing to assume the entire responsibility. The 
natives, however, settled that question by a mes- 
sage to me, stating that they had nothing to say 
to my passenger, Mr. Sinclair; nor to my visitors, 
Dr. B. and Mr. M. ; that they held me responsible 
for my boat and my guns; that they would not 
"see" me at their towns; and that they would at- 



32 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

tack me on my next journey down river. Their 
logic was orientally correct. Every host is held 
responsible for any doings of his guests. The 
responsibility which, in doubt of duty, I had de- 
clined was now forced on to me. I hastened to ac- 
cept it. That native phrase, "not see you at my 
town," is a well-understood threat and defiance. 
Of course, to refrain from going to that very vil- 
lage, and thus face the threat, would be construed 
as cowardice. It was impossible to go at once, 
as we all were making final arrangements for go- 
ing to the annual Mission-meeting at the seaside 
Station in Gaboon. I winced under the probable 
imputation of fear, as, passengers on a river 
steamer, with our boat in tow, we six missionaries, 
with our native attendants, sped by that village a 
week later in the close of December. But I ar- 
ranged with Dr. Bacheler that, on our return, 
a month later in January, 1880, when I should 
come back, to formally pass the Station over to 
his charge, I would make a demonstration. 

I did so. We started the seventy-five miles 
from Libreville to the river's mouth in Nazareth 
Bay, not by steamer, but by the Mission sailing 
vessel, the Hudson. My boat I had left with a 
friendly chief in the Bay; and Dr. B. had brought 
with him another boat, in tow of the Hudson. 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 33 

With these two crafts we began the week's ascent 
of the river, both being laden with the belongings 
of the three new missionaries. 

At the close of the sixth day, we were only a 
few miles below the village, the scene of Nguva's 
rescue, on the other side, but hidden from it by a 
point of land. We camped for the night, enjoyed 
the evening prayers with the forest canopy; slept 
well; woke refreshed, and early started across 
and up river, keeping that point of land between 
us and the town. I claimed the advance, with 
Mrs. Smith; Dr. and Mrs. Bacheler following in 
the other boat. Flags decorated both boats. My 
Winchester repeating rifle was leaning hidden 
under the thatch-covered canopy end of the Nelly- 
Howard, where sat Mrs. Smith protected in the 
stern-sheets, and my hand was near its muzzle, as 
I stood up and out of the canopy's open end, to 
face whatever might occur, and to act as occasion 
might indicate. 

The crews, some of them members of that res- 
cue expedition, broke into a brilliant boat-song, 
as we neared the point. (Crews liked to pass all 
towns with shouts and display.) The display cer- 
tainly was impressive as, in the bright morning 
light, we swept around that point and into close 
sight of the village, whose inhabitants, hearing the 



34 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

songs, knew that boats were coming, but did not 
know who; for they had not seen our approach. 
According to custom, they gathered to see the 
display, and to seek sale of their food supplies. 
Even against the swift current the boats came 
splendidly, racing forward under enthusiastic 
sweeps of the oars, to the very landing of the 
town; then swerved and passed. From the crowd 
on the top of the bank there were shouts of ad- 
miration at the maneuver. Though many were 
armed, those arms were not necessarily for us; 
for almost all these natives went armed. But 
none of our guns were in sight. Perhaps my au- 
dacious taking up of their defiant gauntlet startled 
them. They held up fowls, yams, and other ar- 
ticles for sale. (I felt sure that these were not a 
decoy. Had I not come unsolicited within a few 
yards of them?) They called to me to stop and 
buy. (The boat, crowded with goods, aroused 
their cupidity. This white man who thus brings 
these things is too valuable to be injured!) I 
waved a laughing welcome, promising to come 
again, and giving, as the reason for my haste, 
that the ladies were tired of their long journey, 
and we were trying to reach home that day. 
There was pleasant badinage between our crew 
and their male and. female acquaintances ashore; 



NGUVA'S CHAIN 35 

praise of the boat's handsome appearance; wel- 
comes at Dr. Bacheler's coming; regrets for my 
expected going, and only kind invitations, as we 
sped on our way. 

I fulfilled my promise, and took occasion to 
visit that town shortly afterward, before I sailed 
for America; and I met no unkindness. The sud- 
den excitement of December had died out. The 
younger men, not Christians but partly civilized, 
had sided against their fathers, in defense of their 
Christian companions. The heathen found that 
they had too strong a minority whom to threaten 
with death, and sullenly desisted from their 
threats. 

A year later Nguva was elected the first native 
Elder of the First Ogowe church. And, when he 
died a few years later, the chief of that very town 
of the rescue, himself having become a Christian 
in the great ingathering of 1887, ^^^ elected to 
the vacant eldership. Yasi gradually lost its 
power; and a few years afterward came even to 
be despised. Nguva's chain, kept as a souvenir 
by Dr. Bacheler, was brought to the museum of 
the Mission Building, 156 Fifth Avenue, New 
York City, in 1883, when Dr. and Mrs. Bacheler 
transferred themselves to a Baptist Mission in 
India, where he died in 1890. 



Ill 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Note : — ^A short version of this story appeared in a little maga- 
zine, "Sabbath Readings," in 1904, and also in Miss Brain's "Ad- 
ventures with Four-footed Folk," F. H. Revell, 1908. 

I have no patience with hunters who kill only 
for the sake of counting up a "big bag." The 
"dominion" God gave mankind over "the crea- 
tures" does not justify their ruthless destruction. 
I have shot anything of bird, beast or reptile, as 
necessary food for either myself or my boat's 
crew. I have shot single specimens of anything 
for scientific collections, as a means of broadening 
human knowledge. And I do not hesitate to de- 
stroy on sight anything, such as snake or leopard, 
which is inimical to human life. But beyond these 
calls of hunger, of science, or of the instinct of 
self-preservation, I claim that it is wrong to go. 

Thus much of a prelude, in explanation of why 
I felt it right, one day, more than thirty years 
ago, to engage in an elephant hunt — and assist in 

36 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 37 

shooting down nine full-grown animals : whereby 
at least one thousand men, women and children 
obtained meat. Not a single pound of all that 
mass of flesh — to the very hide and entire internal 
viscera — was thrown away or wasted. What was 
not eaten on the spot was dried for later con- 
sumption. The several hundreds of pounds of 
ivory in the tusks added much to native wealth. 
Possibly the native chief used some of them with 
which to buy more wives ; but that was not in my 
bargain. Also, in the settled districts of Africa, 
I always hear with satisfaction of the clearing 
away of any herd of elephants; for the sake of 
the poor women and their plantations of cassava 
(Jatropha manihot) and plantains (Musa sap- 
ientium). The labor of six months, in the plant- 
ing and growth of these two staffs of life of the 
West African negro, is often swept away in one 
night by a herd of elephants eating or otherwise 
destroying a woman's acre of food. For, it is 
the women who do almost the entire work of 
planting, guarding, gathering and preparing the 
gardens and their food supply. The natives, 
therefore, have three several reasons for seeking 
to exterminate the elephant, i.e., to rid themselves 
of a food-destroyer — incidentally to provide them- 
selves a feast of meat — and as a means of obtain- 



38 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

ing In ivory-trade all the foreign articles by which 
they count their wealth, of guns, pots and kettles, 
beads and other ornaments, calico prints for cloth- 
ing, and an hundred other things, suggested in 
growing stages of civilization. 

One of their modes of elephant-hunting Is the 
ordinary one of stalking them, wherever found, 
whether In the forest or out on the open patches 
of prairie. This is a dangerous mode for the 
hunter. His "trade-gun" is a flint-lock muzzle- 
loader, "made for trade" (most distinctly so!) 
the barrel as soft as common gas pipe; manufac- 
tured largely in Birmingham, England. (France 
and Germany also export similar guns.) Most 
of the European nations forbid the importation 
of percussion arms Into their West African col- 
onies. Of course, then, ordinary hunting powder 
is entirely too explosive for the weak trade-gun 
barrels. The "trade powder" is a large grained, 
slowly-explosive composition, with which the na- 
tive charges his weapon to a fearful degree of 
fullness. Leaden bullets are not used. Slugs are 
employed, made from any broken pot or other 
iron utensil, or cuttings of brass rods. Several 
of these slugs in a gun tear a shocking hole In any 
animal they happen to hit. If the spot struck be 
vital that hole is fatal. But, as the carrying- 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 39 

range of the gun is short, the hunter must be close 
to the animal. And he can take no accurate aim. 
Knowing the fearful amount of powder in his 
gun, and its mulish habit of kicking, he does not 
dare bring the weapon to rest against his shoulder. 
He grasps the stock with both hands at a spot 
convenient to the trigger — extends his arms and 
the entire gun straight forward — holds its weight 
as steadily as Its leverage at the distance will al- 
low, and fires somewhat at random. If the gun 
bursts he will have saved his face at expense of his 
fingers. If the animal be only wounded, woe to 
that hunter! He has staked his life on a single 
discharge; he has no time to reload. It is useless 
to run. The best University sprinter may as well 
stand In his tracks as attempt to flee from the 
magnificent charge of an Infuriated elephant. 
Well If the man has not forgotten his boyhood 
gymnastics of tree-climbing! He may save him- 
self If, having at hand a convenient tree, he "shin 
up" it on the instant. 

Another common method Is to catch In pit-falls. 
A hole Is dug of the size and shape of an ordinary 
elephant's body. The spot selected is on the line 
of a recognized "run" of a herd to water or rich 
feeding-ground. So suspicious is this great, in- 
telligent, yet often silly, beast, that any fresh 



40 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

earth exposed along the side of the run-way will 
cause him to hesitate and turn aside. The digger 
of the pit must, therefore, laboriously carry to 
some distance every basketful of earth. When the 
pit is finished it must be covered with light, dry 
sticks, over which are then strewn, in a studiously 
natural manner, the ordinary dead forest leaves. 
In treading on this frail structure the elephant 
sinks into a hole just small enough to jam him 
tightly and prevent him moving around. Help- 
less, thus, he can easily be killed. But the owner 
of the pit must find him there within twenty-four 
hours or with his tusks he will dig down the side 
of the pit in front of him — with his proboscis will 
push the loose earth under his feet, slowly elevat- 
ing himself and gradually making an inclined 
plane up which he will scramble to freedom. 

An occasional method is to suspend a heavy 
log, into whose lower end is fastened a large sharp 
iron point. The rope suspending the log passes 
over a convenient limb of a tree to the ground by 
a run-way. The other end of the rope is fastened 
across that run-way, and set with a "figure-4" 
trigger. The elephant is expected to trip the 
rope — snapping the trigger — and letting fall the 
iron point on his spine. The log's weight and the 
momentum of its fall could ffive a fatal blow. But 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 41 

the chances are rather against its successfully 
striking the spine. 

The most remarkable mode of catching ele- 
phants is to corral them in a stockade built around 
them, and then shoot them down as may be con- 
venient. When I first heard of that mode I was 
living on the Ogowe, a river that emerges into 
the South Atlantic at Cape Lopez, one degree 
south of the Equator. I refused to believe. It 
seemed incredible that five, ten or fifteen wild 
elephants would remain quiet the while a fence 
was being built about them. How could those 
animals refrain from stampeding in sight and 
sound day after day of a crowd of natives, when 
white hunters could get a shot at an elephant only 
by carefully and quietly stalking him against the 
wind? But it was reasserted so often, and by so 
many, that finally I believed; and was curious to 
see for myself. I was living near a place, Lem- 
barene, some one hundred and thirty miles up the 
course of the Ogowe. In my tours all through 
that river, its affluents, and its lakes; journeying 
thousands of miles by boat and canoe, I had made 
hundreds of friends among the native chiefs and 
heads of villages. I was on cordial terms with 
the only other white men in the river, a half dozen 
English and German Ivory- and Rubber-Traders, 



42 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

and their native sub-traders. One of these sub- 
traders, John Ermy, an American mulatto, who 
lived some twenty miles farther up river, and 
Maja, the chief of the Fang town where John's 
house was, had both been hospitable to me on my 
tours. They said that elephant corrals were well 
known in that region. I begged them to let me 
know when the very next one should be built. 
They promised to do so, and said that they would 
ask the aid of my rifle. 

They described to me the entire process. Much 
of it I verified for myself on two subsequent oc- 
casions, when I saw the stockade actually being 
built. Generally it begins with a woman; for 
women take care of the weeding of their plan- 
tain farms. She happens to find a herd — they 
vary from five to twenty — -feeding near or actually 
in her farm. These farms are from half to one 
mile distant from the villages. Instead of at- 
tempting to alarm the animals and frighten them 
away she leaves her work, hastens to the village, 
and notifies the men. In an amazingly short time, 
by messenger or the telegraph signal-drum, the 
news is carried from village to village. There is 
a wonderful carrying power in the native voice, 
accustomed to shout across rivers and through 
the forest. Instantly hundreds of men, women 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 43 

and children haste toward the spot where the ani- 
mals were discovered. Care is taken not to ap- 
proach too close; but, with a radius of several 
hundred yards or more, a living cordon is thrown, 
and the men, with their long, sharp sword-knives, 
cut down the abundant forest vines which, with 
the aid of the women, they rapidly tie from tree 
to tree, like telegraph wires, encircling the entire 
herd and inclosing an area sometimes as large as 
a ten-acre lot. The African forest is densely 
hung with vines, creepers and lianes of wonder- 
ful variety and length. Other men vigorously cut 
down small trees; the children are useful in rap- 
idly carrying; and still other men thrust these 
saplings as stakes at short intervals along the 
boundary outlined by the vines. And, again, 
other men are tying with rattan strings long pli- 
able poles horizontally on to the upright stakes. 
The crowd has in half an hour increased to many 
hundreds; every one, even to the youngest child, 
busy; really no confusion, even in such a multi- 
tude; really no time lost in gathering materials, 
the work being divided, and each person willingly 
falling into the position where he or she is most 
needed; the time and strength of the strong- 
armed men, as they thrust in stake after stake, 
being saved by the prompt carriage, by women 



44 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

and children, of material from the hands of the 
cutter. In an hour there has grown up, as if by 
magic, a well-defined fence. True, the proboscis 
of a single elephant could sweep it away. But the 
remarkable fact is that the herd does not attempt 
to do so. As the crowd, at first, suppresses all 
conversation, much of the boundary line of vines 
may be tied before the animals discover what is 
going on. If startled and they attempt to emerge, 
the crowd masses itself in front of them with 
shouts and sticks and stones, and drives them 
back. If then they attempt to emerge on the op- 
posite side, another massed crowd meets them 
there, and they return confused toward the cen- 
ter. Though so intelligent, those great beasts 
seem to be unaware of their own strength; are 
seized with a fear of that suspicious looking row 
of vines and pickets ; and they hesitate to touch it. 
Moreover, superstition steps in to help. Native 
Magic-doctors, male and female, tie up little bun- 
dles of charms and suspend them at intervals 
along these vines. On one of those tv/o later oc- 
casions I saw a space of several hundred feet 
along which there had been time as yet to tie only 
a single vine; two elephants were in sight a few 
hundred feet distant quietly browsing on tree 
branches ; a native sorceress sat comfortably chat- 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 45 

ting as she smeared a red mixture over a gazelle's 
horn, which, when tied to the vine in that unpro- 
tected space, she said would prevent the elephants 
coming that way. In fact, they did not come (as 
she believed) because of the controlling spirit she 
had conjured into the horn. When I had first 
observed that unguarded space on the outline of 
the fence, being interested for the success of my 
native friends, I had directed that woman's at- 
tention to it (I did not then know she was a sor- 
ceress), and urged her to call men to stake the 
vacancy lest the animals should escape. She 
quietly and with dignity had said, "They will not 
escape." I hurriedly asked, "Why? how?" She 
did not deign to reply; and smiling, as if at my 
ignorance, pointed to the horn as she rose and 
went to suspend it from the circling vine. I sus- 
pect that its efficiency was because of some odor in 
that red mixture that was offensive to the ele- 
phants. All animals have their special disgusts, 
as shown in our words "henbane," "wolf-bane." 
Tradition tells of a female Christian martyr, in 
a Roman amphitheater, surrounded by hungry 
gnashing African leopards, but saved by the arti- 
fice of a devoted negro slave who had soaked her 
mistress' only garment in leopard-bane. It is 
known that elephants hate the odor of civet; they 



46 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

will not browse on grass tainted with it. Civet 
cats are numerous. Most natives also are dis- 
gusted with their odor. There is confusion in a 
kitchen in whose fire-place has been laid wood on 
which the civet has sat. 

This fence-building goes on night and day. 
Hasty shelters are erected, and there the crowd 
camps. To the children it is a grand picnic. 
They, with all the adults, are looking forward to 
a magnificent feast. By the end of a week the 
slight picket-fence has been strengthened by stout 
posts, buttressed at short intervals by heavy logs, 
making a stockade that could be broken only by a 
furious stampede. Stampede is prevented by the 
watchmen, who, by shouts and missiles, would 
break it before it could grow to furious propor- 
tions. Or, at the worst, a fusillade of massed 
guns, fired point-blank, would drive back almost 
any stampede. In the meantime the "doctor"-in- 
chief, with his drum, dance, mirror, or basin of 
water, and other arts of divination, is making the 
fetish-charm which, rubbed onto the guns of hunt- 
ers, on whatever day shall be found to be auspi- 
cious, will make aim accurate and shots fatal, for 
the simultaneous fall of the prey. 

It was at this stage of the proceedings, in 
March, 1879, ^^^^ ^Y ^^^ ^^^ asked for. 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 47 

Not long after one of my visits to John's house, 
came a message from Maja saying that a herd of 
ten had been inclosed; that the fence was com- 
pleted; that an auspicious day had been selected 
by the native doctor for slaughter-day; and would 
I please to come and bring my "gun-that-talked- 
ten-times" (Winchester repeater) and help them 
In the shooting. Here was a reason for my go- 
ing, additional to those already mentioned. It be- 
ing sure and necessary that the animals were to 
be killed, it was desirable that their death should 
be prompt; the native guns would make much 
painful butchery. Moreover, Maja had another 
big reason why he wanted the help of my rifle. 
In shooting down the animals within the inclosure, 
native law said that no one of them should be 
divided until the entire herd had fallen. (This, 
for the reason that, In the successive division of 
animal by animal, a greedy few could grab the 
largest share of each successive one. In the di- 
vision of the entire fallen herd the chances for 
grabbing were reduced to one.) Therefore, 
Superstition was called in to aid, and the herd 
waited sometimes two weeks before the doctor- 
diviner fixed on a day on which he asserted all 
their guns would shoot straight and fatally; so 
that the division might be made on one and the 



4S IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

same day. For the carcass that first fell to lie 
undivided two or three days, while the other 
beasts were being unsuccessfully shot at, would 
cause the people loss, by the corruption of the 
flesh of that first one. That chosen day would be 
an anxious day; anxious that when the shooting 
began all the animals should fall within a few 
hours of each other. The herd during all those 
days of delay had pasturage on the tree branches 
and other herbage in the inclosure. If it included 
no spring of water, vessels of water were cau- 
tiously carried in for the thirst of the herd. If 
they became restive, sometimes plaintains soaked 
in a poisonous drug were thrown to them to stu- 
pefy them. 

I made preparations for the twenty-mile jour- 
ney up river in a four-oared gig with six men, and 
food for a few days' absence. The appointed day, 
in my calculation, would fall on a Monday. I 
started on the Saturday previous, intending to 
pass the Sunday with religious services in Maja's 
town; and thence start for the hunt on Monday 
morning. Arrived at John's house on Saturday 
evening, I was welcomed by him and Maja, who 
was anxious for my rifle. He said, "Good! that 
you have come ! We are all ready and waiting 
you for to-morrow." "No, I counted your days 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 49 

till Monday." "You miscounted; to-morrow is 
the Spirit-chosen day." "But I will not come; to- 
morrow is God's Day. I will come on Monday." 
He was egregiously disappointed; but he could 
not change the day. It was as solemn to him as 
my Sunday to me. I, too, was disappointed. I 
should miss seeing what I might not have a chance 
to see for perhaps years again. My crew, too, 
were in ill humor. They wanted to be in "at the 
death." They were not Christians, and did not 
care for Sunday. But they were in my employ 
and had to remain. 

Sabbath morning broke beautifully clear, ac- 
companied by a heavy fusillade of guns three miles 
distant in the forest. My crew squirmed uneasily, 
like boys prevented from going to a circus. And 
in my own heart I had to confess to myself that 
I really sympathized with them. I was conscious 
that my own enjoyment of my church-services that 
morning with the few aged or invalid towns-peo- 
ple and children was somewhat marred by the 
sound of those same guns, and a desire to be 
there. In the afternoon the firing ceased. A 
delegation came from the stockade, all their am- 
munition being exhausted, to buy more. John, 
professedly regarding my presence, refused to sell 
on the Sabbath. (I have always suspected that 



50 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

his refusal was based less on any religious scruple 
than on a generous artifice to prevent the further 
destruction of the elephants till I could start next 
morning.) The men said that all the ten ele- 
phants were wounded; that none had fallen; and 
that one infuriated male had charged the stock- 
ade, broken it, and escaped: in his charge crush- 
ing to death one man. I comforted them with a 
promise to come very early in the morning. 
Some of them returned to the stockade with pow- 
der they had obtained in the village. But there 
was very little firing that evening. 

Early on Monday morning, leaving two of my 
men in charge of the boat, I started with my other 
four, John and his men, and the remainder of the 
delegation, on a rapid three-mile walk over a nar- 
row, rough forest path. My steps were quick- 
ened by hearing the fusillade that had been re- 
sumed at daylight, and which grew louder as we 
approached the scene. My curiosity intensely 
sharpened; my blood was stirred; what young 
hunters know as the reckless excitement of the 
chase seized me. 

Emerging into the clearing made by the camp, 
the scene was thrilling. A thousand men, women 
and children were in sight in the arc of the circle 
of the stockade visible to my right and left. For 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 51 

two weeks they had been waiting for a feast, and 
now they were impatient to see the animals fall. 
All were excitedly talking, shouting, directing, ex- 
postulating, almost quarreling. Chief Maja, with 
his expert hunters and the head-doctor, a grave, 
serious-looking man, met me; the chief with an 
affectionate embrace and the others with deferen- 
tial salutation. 

At intervals in the stockade there were narrow 
breaks, sufficient for a man to pass through. 
These doorways were guarded by sentinels, who 
allowed none but skilled hunters to enter. These 
men would daringly sneak from tree to tree in the 
inclosure, till they could fire at close range, and 
then flit back unseen to the doorway. Or, climb- 
ing trees, they would fire from above at the ele- 
phants' vulnerable spines as they wandered be- 
neath. I found that five of the animals had fallen 
in that morning's fusillade; and the remaining 
four, though wounded, were still on their feet and 
strongly wandering about. Knowing the long 
range of my Winchester, and fearing that a stray 
bullet might injure some of the people on the op- 
posite side of the circle, Maja, at my request, or- 
dered those on the opposite side to mass off to 
my right and left, that I might have clear room. 
And the entire crowd were to cease firing. ' They 



52 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

did so. A great hush fell on the multitude ; they 
held their breath in expectation. The silence was 
broken only by the crack of my Winchester, so 
different from the roar of their guns' explosions. 
Soon I had laid low three of the four animals, 
leaving only one, an enormous male. Of him I 
could obtain no fair sight. He was in a clump of 
trees and bushes that hid all vulnerable parts of 
his body. He was standing as if too weak to 
move farther. (I was soon to find, to my cost, 
that he was shamming.) The suppressed excite- 
ment broke out again fiercely, all the more for its 
having been suppressed. Hundreds of eyes 
looked, as vultures' eyes, on the eight prostrate 
carcasses, whose division for food was blocked 
by the tenacity of life of this one wounded ele- 
phant, hidden in that clump of bushes, who re- 
fused to walk out into the open range. Furious 
hunters took me from point to point to obtain 
sight of his body; but I refused to fire at what 
was not vulnerable. 

My own blood was racing madly, infected by 
the frantic shouts around me. Thought T. If 
the fellow is so desperately wounded that he can- 
not walk I will enter one of these gateways and 
put him out of pain with a fatal shot at close 
range ! Stepping to a sentinel, I ordered him to 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 53 

stand aside, and pass me In. He refused! I was 
not accustomed to be refused; and was becoming 
angry. But I suppressed the anger and tried to 
bribe him. He would not be bribed. Then I 
berated him. He calmly said, "Your life is too 
precious. You must not enter." It was noble in 
him to say that. But the wild scene had made me 
reckless, and I told him that, as his chief's guest, 
I had the privilege, which (he perfectly well 
knew) native custom gave any guest, of doing as 
I pleased. He still refused. So I rushed to 
Maja, laid complaint against the sentinel, and de- 
manded my right as his guest. Maja looked 
grave: "That beast is dangerous. I wish you 
would not enter. But, as you insist on your guest- 
right, you shall go. And I will go with you." 

We entered: I leading, followed closely. In 
single file, by Maja and seven of his bravest hunt- 
ers. I should have allowed him to lead; but I 
had lost all judgment, in the insanity of a "hunt- 
er's rage." The only things that were clear to 
me were my hand firm on rifle, eye wary, step 
quick, crouching, soft and stealthy. From the 
doorway to the clump in which the elephant was 
hidden was a distance of some two hundred yards. 
We had gone over more than half of it through 
an open glade, when at about two hundred and 



54 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

fifty feet, I knelt and aimed behind the ear which 
had just then become visible. Before I could pull 
the trigger I was deafened by the roar of those 
eight guns behind me fired over my head, and I 
was blinded in their smoke. Rising, I looked be- 
hind me; and I was alone! Maja and his men 
were racing toward that gateway. (He told me 
afterward that his more accustomed eye had seen 
what I had not seen in a movement of the ele- 
phant; that he had called to me to run, and sup- 
posed I was follov/ing him. Intensely preoccu- 
pied, I had not heard his warning, nor seen his 
flight.) Looking forward, I saw what bathed me 
in alternate cold and hot flushes. That great 
mountain of flesh was moving! Yes! AND 
HE'S COMING! Wounded, but strong, infuri- 
ated, terrific! COMING! Death was coming! 
I turned and attempted to flee. But a great sweat 
broke out all over me ; my knees gave way. And 
I stopped. It's no use to flee before the elongated 
stretch of those mighty legs ! I turned and faced 
him. And instantly I was fearless, cool and 
strong, erect and calm; nerves as iron; thought 
clear as crystal, and quick as lightning's flash. 

You have read that it is told of the drowning, 
who have returned to consciousness, that their 
whole life was reproduced in an instant's pano- 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL S5 

rama. It Is true. That panorama came to me; 
and in the three seconds of that huge beast's 
plunge toward me I thought the thoughts of years. 
Though thoughts flashed I remember that they 
did not seem hurried or confused. They actually 
seemed deliberate. They were calm, orderly, and 
in logical succession. 

As I turned and faced those uplifted tusks that 
were soon to pierce me — that trumpeting proboscis 
that was soon to wind its boa-like embrace about 
me — and those broad feet that were soon to crush 
me, I thought: I have so often faced and been 
ready for death by fever, serpent, water, poison, 
human rage; have left nothing for a final prep- 
aration; I am not afraid now. Then: It will 
not last long; that proboscis will seize me and, 
uplifting me, will fling me almost unconscious to 
the ground; that heavy foot will press out my 
little life In an instant; and it will not be very 
painful. Then: A regret that my life should 
go out in Its prime. Then: Somewhat of a re- 
gret that there should go on record that the last 
act of his life, who had been sent to preach the 
Gospel, was an unexplained elephant hunt. Then: 
As a great flood came a longing to live. Then: 
An ejaculation, "God! help me out of this, and I 
won't do it again." Then: Like an inspiration; 



S6 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

I remember reading that elephants don't see very 
well from the corner of their eyes; this beast is 
half blinded with rage; as he reaches you jump 
to the right; in his impetus he will miss you and 
will plunge on after the other eight who are strug- 
gling through the doorway! I did so! As the 
towering head was lowered toward me I jumped 
sidewise, as I had never jumped before, my best 
university standing-jump. And his huge mass of 
flesh surged past me; but so near that I could 
have laid my hand on his hind leg. The momen- 
tum of his furious charge carried him on. He 
forgot me. Was aiming for that gateway! 
"Thanks, O ! God." I was back again among the 
interests and excitements of life ! I observed that 
my rifle was still in my grasp. I fled toward an- 
other point in the stockade that was indeed farther 
than that now dangerous doorway, but on a line 
which was at right angles to the course the beast 
was taking. Weak knees were now firm. I knew 
I was to live. I sped at my best sprint — reached 
the fence, flung the rifle over — climbed to the top. 
As I looked down the line, the last of those eight 
men had just squeezed through that narrow gate- 
way, and the elephant on their heels was bowing 
his head to ram the fence. That strongly but- 
tressed stockade yielded, bent, broke, and the ani- 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 57 

mal would have gone free. But from the dense 
crowd before him dozens of guns belched forth 
a rain of iron slugs, not four yards from his very 
face. Slugs that were not able to penetrate his 
impenetrable frontal bone, but that tore the skin 
from his entire face, head and neck, and sent him 
about, blinded, wandering aimlessly from the 
shouts behind him. Everybody was exhausted. 
The crowd amazed and at its wit's end, except 
that it hastened to repair the damage to the fence. 
Maja terrified for his guest's safety, and relieved 
as I came up smiling, and gently rebuked him for 
his desertion of me. And then I was conscious 
I was out of breath and tired. 

While all were drowning each other's voices in 
dramatically telling just how it all happened, there 
arose a cry from the opposite side of the inclosure. 
Listen! What? What's that they're saying? 
Dead? Yes! they say he's dead! O! what a 
shout ! A very Niagara of voice. And the crowd 
did not wait for permission to enter the inclosure. 
They swarmed over that fence, men, women and 
children, old and young, king and slave, white 
man and native. And we all raced through the 
forest to that other side. There the poor beast 
was. No longer able to walk. Sitting on his 
haunches, like a dog, and vainly trying to defend 



58 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

himself with his proboscis, as the men who had 
discovered him thrust spears into his sides. He 
toppled over with a crash to the ground; and, 
with a great human-like sigh, died. Then such a 
shout as rent the forest! The deep, heavy male 
roar; above it, waves of the female "li-li-li"; and 
crowned with children's falsetto of the *'yeh! yeh! 
yeh!" The crowd was frantic. 

My "hunter's rage" was done. Came a reac- 
tion. Came a pity for the beast that had made 
so brave a fight for life against so many odds. I 
stood aside. A man had leaped on the carcass, 
and was dancing a fearfully muscular jig of vic- 
tory. Relatives of the man who had been killed 
stood before the animal's dying face, and poured 
horrid imprecations on it — as if he was a person 
— for his brother-elephant's murder of their 
brother. Tail was cut off, a trophy for the king; 
as the fox's "brush" in an English hunt. The 
trunk was cut off as a special delicacy. The tusks 
were dug out. And the dissection began. 

My work was done. I had helped them. And 
I was going. I turned to say good-bye to Maja. 
But he delayed me. "You must not go so." The 
"doctor" came. He seemed to recognize in me a 
fellow-craftsman. He bore me no ill will for my 
falsification of his chosen auspicious day. Doubt- 



IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 59 

less he satisfied his followers with an explanation 
that the white man's fetish was an unexpected fac- 
tor that had complicated his calculations. And 
we parted friends. Maja bade my men cut down 
a stout pole; to it he fastened more than a hun- 
dred pounds of elephant steak. "That is the doc- 
tor's fee for your aid." ''No, Maja, I don't take 
fees from friends. I came willingly." "Then it; 
is my gift of friendship." "Akeva, thanks." And 
I and my men left, two bearing the mass of fresh 
meat hanging from that pole on their shoulders, 
as I remembered in a children's Scripture-history 
picture-book of two of the Hebrew spies with an 
enormous bunch of Eschol grapes. Our three 
miles back to the river were very slow ones. Re- 
action had left us wearied. 

Arrived at the boat, the men were not in a good 
humor; for I wished to reach home that evening 
and refused to wait till they could cook and eat 
of the spoil. 

That was years ago; I am wiser now. A crew 
does not row well on an unsatisfied stomach. 
Only that the twenty miles were with the current 
down-stream the return would have been very, 
very slow. We did not reach home till night, too 
late for any careful cookery of meat for me. And 
by next day it was tainted. But elephant meat is 



6o IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

coarse, anyhow! (Sour grapes?) However, it 
was not lost or wasted; my school-boys enjoyed 
a rare feast to repletion. 

I have kept my promise made in that moment 
of danger when the pursuer had become the pur- 
sued. I have twice since seen a corral built; and 
several times since have hunted elephants, but 
never again inside of an elephant corral. 



IV 

UPSET BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 

On my return, in 1881, to the Ogowe river, 
from a furlough in the United States, Mrs. Nas- 
sau and I arrived at my old Kangwe Station on 
Christmas day of that year. My little bamboo 
cottage on the hilltop was occupied by the Rev. 
W. H. Robinson, Stated Supply of the church. 
But a new, large and comfortable framed build- 
ing had been erected during my absence a short 
distance from the foot of the hill, near the mouth 
of a small stream, "Andende," flowing into the 
Ogowe, and was occupied by a lay missionary and 
his wife, he being financial agent of the Mission. 
Almost all visitors, white and black, had wearied 
of the steep climb of the hill to my cottage on its 
top. The ''Andende House," though near a 
swampy ground that was infested by mosquitoes, 
was, because of its convenience of access from the 
river side, paling the importance of the Hill-house 

61 



62 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

(which some years afterward was finally aban- 
doned) . 

I had been appointed to commence a new Sta- 
tion somewhere up river, "not within fifty miles 
of Kangwe." During January, 1882, I prepared 
for a long journey of inspection of localities. 
Leaving Mrs. Nassau at the hill, I made that 
journey during February, going 200 miles by 
canoe, over a portion of the long series of cat- 
aracts, and as far as Mt. Otombo. On the way, 
I observed about a dozen desirable-looking sites. 
On my return down river I stopped and examined 
them. By a process of exclusion I reduced them 
to two; one, about seventy miles from Kangwe, 
"Talaguga," on the right bank, was near an enor- 
mous rock of that name. It had a desirable land- 
ing-place where a small clear stream tumbled from 
the steep mountainside into the deep swift Ogowe: 
the other, Njoli Island, was two miles farther up 
river. My objections to the latter were two, viz. : 
it had no drinking-water, though a good clear 
brook fell into the river, on the left bank, oppo- 
site to it (but to obtain the spring-water the daily 
service of a canoe would be required) : also, the 
exploring expedition of Count De Brazza had 
left on the island a hut at the camp they had es- 
tablished on one of his journeys, and I felt that 



UPSET BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 63 

the place was thus preempted by him. (While 
this was true at that time, the French Government 
subsequently abandoned that spot and made their 
"Njoli Post" on another island three miles 
farther upstream. The original Njoli island is 
now occupied by my successors, the Paris Evan- 
gelical Society, who, when they received our 
Ogowe Mission, transferred to them in 1892, 
moved my Talaguga house to the island. But 
still, with courteous reference to myself, they call 
their island Station "Talaguga.") 

In March of 1882 I began building at Talaguga 
brook-side a hastiest of native shelter, to protect 
me from the almost daily rains of the "Latter 
Rainy-Season" (March-May), the while that I 
erected a more substantial, but still only a native, 
hut with a clay floor, also at the waterside; and, 
later, occupying a tent. In the Cold Dry Season 
(June-August) Mrs. Nassau followed me, joining 
my tent-life, while I began to build a small but 
comfortable bamboo bungalow on posts on the 
hillside. 

When the "Former" Rainy-Season began (Sep- 
tember-November) Mrs. Nassau had to return 
to Kangwe. I completed that bungalow by the 
end of December; and then went down to Kangwe. 

In January, 1883, I returned with her, in the 



64 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Nelly-Howard, my six-oared boat, thirty feet in 
length and six feet in its middle width, built long 
and sharp and light, for stemming the river's 
four-knot current. I started on the three-and-a- 
half day's pull upstream. Eighteen miles a day 
was all that the six unskilled oarsmen could make 
between 7 a. m. to 12 noon and 2 p. m. to 5 p. m., 
of the Invariable twelve hours of daylight. The 
boat was very heavily laden. Besides my six crew 
and cook, with Mrs. Nassau, myself, and Mr. 
Menkel (the missionary mechanic coming to help 
me build a more permanent dwelling of imported 
planks) and his little son, there were two young 
girls, attendants on Mrs. Nassau, fourteen souls 
in all, with a closely packed heavy cargo of pro- 
visions and building materials. And, near the 
stern-sheets, a Mason and Hamlin organ in its 
original packing case, one of Mrs. Nassau's wed- 
ding presents. Its length just fitted into the boat's 
width, and its width displaced the spaces occupied 
by the sweep of the arms of two of the oarsmen. 
We were able therefore to use only four oars. 

On the first morning of the journey we had 
gone only about eight miles, and were nearing the 
mouth of the Ngunye, the large affluent on the 
left bank, whose deposit of sand and mud in the 
Ogowe at that point makes two islands (Walk- 



UPSET BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 6s 

er's) and a troublesome series of sand flats. The 
channels between these were intricate, requiring 
careful steering and close watching of the shallow 
depths; for, in January and February (the Mid- 
dle Dry-Season), the river runs low. (Also in 
the Cold Dry.) At those seasons, the difficulty 
of navigation was not so much the current as the 
long detours around these sand-banks. 

Connected with these detours was a real dan- 
ger from the hippopotami, numerous during those 
seasons and in just such places. They do not like 
very deep or swift water. So, during the flood 
seasons, when boats are able to steer straight 
courses anywhere over the submerged shoals, 
those huge beasts are not often seen. They re- 
tire to the more shallow and quieter waters of the 
back lagoons. But, when the water is again at 
low stage they return to the main stream. Dur- 
ing the nights they are feeding ashore, devastat- 
ing the plantations of the natives, or quietly 
browsing the vegetation of the river bank, and the 
succulent grasses that spring up on the low islands 
after the deposit of fertilizing mud left, as on 
Egypt of the Nile at the subsidence of the semi- 
annual flood. Their favorite resting-places dur- 
ing the day are in the channels, near the sandbars 
or islands, in a depth of water so shallow that, 



66 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

while their bodies are submerged, their heads, or 
at least ears, eyes, and nostrils, are exposed. The 
females there safely sleep or idly rest with their 
little ones on their backs; the male of the herd 
stands, his head exposed, and watchful of any as- 
sailants or other intruders. 

Nothing in my African life gave me a more 
conscious dread than the being compelled to guide 
my boat past that huge beast, with its angry bel- 
low and fearfully opened jaws. I faced with less 
dread fever, reptiles, beasts of the forest, poison, 
assault by savage natives. If asked, "Then, why 
did you take your boat into such places?" the ex- 
planation is that the journeys were necessary, and 
there was no other route to be taken than just 
those very channels in which the hippopotami 
were lying. The channeL might be only a hun- 
dred yards in width. As I looked ahead I could 
see the ears of six or a dozen of the beasts above 
the surface of the water. Presently a head would 
be thrust up, then came a puff of water from the 
nostrils, and the jaws opened with a mighty gape, 
so that actually an object as large as a flour bar- 
rel could have laid in them, and the terrifying bel- 
low would be issued as a challenge. The beast 
was right, from his point of view. He saw a 
large object approaching him, its projecting oars 



UPSET BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 67 

moving like so many legs. He saw human beings, 
the born enemies of the animal kingdom; he was 
by nature put on guard for his family; he should 
bravely advance to meet the assault from those 
supposed enemies ; and daringly he would be the 
first to attack. If he had only known how afraid 
his supposed assailants were he need not have 
made any advance, and might have allowed them 
to pass by In peace ! My terrified crew would 
falter in their stroke on the oars ; I feared always 
that they would make the case worse by throwing 
down their oars or paddles. They saw me silent, 
or perhaps thought I was non-observant or even 
Ignorant. They would hesitatingly or in bated 
breath look up to me and say, "Hippopotamuses! 
don't you see them?" "Yes!" I curtly replied. 
They said, "We fear them!" And as curtly I 
firmly ordered, "If so, then shut your eyes and 
pull! Pull strong! All together! I'm guiding!" 
My anxiety was that the boat's impetus should be 
maintained. As boat and beast approached each 
other, at the critical moment my turning of the 
rudder would swing the boat or canoe clear, we 
would sweep by, and the beast would follow only 
a few yards. He was satisfied with his apparent 
victory; for that his supposed enemy had fled! 
On that day the water was so low that, in at- 



68 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

tempting what seemed to be channels, we several 
times found ourselves in a cul-de-sac, beyond 
which there was no sufficient depth of water for 
us to pass. We lost time in having to turn back 
and seek passage elsewhere. So I determined to 
leave the usual route and pull over to the right 
bank where, though the swifter current would op- 
pose us, the depth would assure us from vex- 
atious turnings. In so doing we all felt more com- 
fortable in the thought that we would meet no 
hippopotamus in that deeper water. 

We were moving rapidly and happily, and 
were only a few rods from shore, when suddenly 
the boat struck heavily, and its momentum was 
checked. What was it? Not that we had run 
aground on a sand-spit; no shallows were there; 
for the water was comparatively deep. Not that 
we had struck a rocky ledge; for I knew there 
were no stones in that part of the river. Possibly 
a sunken tree. These thoughts were instantane- 
ous. Fearing that the boat might careen I 
shouted to the crew to pull faster in order to 
drag ourselves over the obstruction, whatever it 
was. And, just as instantaneously, the entire 
stern of the boat was lifted bodily out of the 
water, and we slid forward and over the obstacle, 
which, at that moment, revealed itself as the back 



UPSET BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 69 

of a hippopotamus. As we slid over him and 
down again onto an even keel I, at the stern, could 
have laid my hand on his hindquarters as he 
emerged and as suddenly disappeared again into 
the water. It was an enormous strength he had 
used to lift that end of the boat where were sit- 
ting three adults and three children, closely con- 
fined by the proximity of the heavy organ case. 
At once water was seen rushing in through a hole 
at our feet. Pieces of clothing were thrust into it 
as a temporary measure; and I hastened the boat 
toward the shore. Just at that part of the river 
bank there was no possible landing. The bank 
itself was perpendicular and covered to and be- 
yond the water's edge with a jungle of bushes. 
Only a desperate emergency would have driven 
us to attempt to clamber ashore through those 
almost impenetrable interlaced vines and branches. 
So, constantly bailing out the incoming water, we 
rowed rapidly on, until, after a few hundred 
yards, we fortunately came to the mouth of a 
small affluent, into which I ran the boat. There 
was there a small sandy beach, on to which we 
drew it. On examination, we found a hole evi- 
dently made by the teeth of that hippopotamus. 
Consideration of facts gradually revealed the 
story that the beast must have been swimming or 



70 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

walking on the bottom of that portion of the river 
we had been crossing. While it is true that hip- 
popotami prefer shallows in which to lie and rest 
or sleep, necessarily in going ashore again they 
swim in the deeper water, or walk on the bottom, 
they being able to remain under water a long time. 
The course my boat was taking must have 
crossed his back laterally. He being just below 
the surface, the keel had evidently struck his 
spine as if it was a sunken log or rock. Had the 
keel struck the beast longitudinally, the boat would 
have careened to one side, and might have been 
upset, with probable drowning of some of its four- 
teen passengers. But, crossing his back at right 
angles, we actually slid even over, as he, enraged 
by the blow, rose to the surface to attack us. As 
he rose, he must, in his anger, have bitten at the 
keel that had hit him; and thence came the two 
holes in the bottom of the boat. The rapidity 
with which we slid over and away from him saved 
us from any attempt at pursuit by him. He prob- 
ably also was startled as much as we, and he was 
satisfied to let us go on in our flight. To our 
astonishment also we found that the iron "shoe" 
of the boat was broken about eight feet from the 
stern, just near the spot where the bottom was 
bitten through. That shoe, covering the entire 



UPSET BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 71 

length of the keel, was a wrought Iron bar, one 
and a half inches wide by one-third of an inch 
thick; it was broken, and the two ends of the frac- 
ture were hanging down a foot or two below the 
keel, torn away from the screws that had held it 
In place. Its use was to save the wood of the 
keel from abrasion in grating over stones or other 
rough objects. It seemed scarcely credible, and 
yet there was no other possible explanation for 
that fracture, than that it was caused by the 
teeth of that hippopotamus when he made his 
vicious bite at the boat's bottom. An iron bar, 
such as that, bitten through by his teeth! How 
easily he could crush a canoe, like an egg-shell ! 
And, how readily he could have torn away the 
side of our boat, had he been pugnacious, or had 
he chosen to use all his strength ! He is never 
carnivorous; but, in a fight, had he assailed our 
bodies, those fearful teeth would have bitten a 
human being in two at one snap of those massive 
jaws. Fortunately, he was satisfied with that 
big bite, and had gone on his way, as we had on 
ours. 

While making the examination of damages, we 
had our noon meal cooked on that pretty little 
beach under the dense shade of those forest trees. 
The tin, containing the canned meat which we ate 



72 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

for our meal, we utilized to nail over the holes 
in the boat's bottom, until more careful repairs 
could be made at our journey's end three days 
later. 



V 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 

When, in March, 1882, I purchased the land 
for the Talaguga Station, my dealings were nom- 
inally with an old man, Mamyaga, the reputed 
Chief of that region. But, actually, the one 
whom I had soon to recognize as an authority 
was a much younger man, by name Nyare. Na- 
turally, I had considered Mamyaga as Chief; for 
I saw his venerable appearance, and people told 
me he was "the Father." But he was a mild, in- 
offensive man; and, in making my visits and ask- 
ing for arrangements for the formal purchase, 
I met at every turn this man Nyare. His voice 
was the most frequent and strident in our prelim- 
inary discussions. I did not resent his forward- 
ness, for I thought he was acting as aide to Mam- 
yaga. Gradually I found that all the arrange- 
ments were falling solely into his hands. I did 
not appreciate the possible evil of my thus recog- 
nizing him as an authority until afterwards, when 

73 



74 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

I was told that formerly, while he was living with 
Mamyaga, and subject to him, he had been so 
officious even in native councils, so offensive in 
his assumptions, and so violent in his acts, that, 
unable to live in peace, he had broken away, and 
set up a village of his own, followed by only his 
own immediate family and a few discontented 
spirits who looked for gain in the claim that 
Nyare was also a "Chief." 

His village was the one nearest to the site of 
the new Station, and some of his land was in- 
cluded in the tract I was buying. At once he and 
his associates saw that proximity to the white 
man's house would be a source of gain. And 
still others joined his village in order that they 
might have daily opportunities for selling articles 
of food, begging gifts, or doing odd jobs of work 
for me. 

Mamyaga's village was two miles distant. He 
did not often come to see me. Nyare's visits 
were frequent. He made the most of his oppor- 
tunities. And presently I heard myself spoken 
of as "Nyare's white man." It was a singular 
state of affairs at that time all over that part 
of Equatorial Africa, before the present foreign 
Governments had superseded the then Native 
Patriarchal rule, that, white Traders, wherever 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 75 

they located, had, as their very first act, to recog- 
nize some one native man as their patron, who 
then arrogated to himself the title of "Head- 
man,'' "Chief," or even "King." They did noth- 
ing and went nowhere without first acquainting 
him. If he approved, they were perfectly safe 
and successful. If he disapproved, their move- 
ments were secretly blocked. No porters would 
carry them or their baggage, no servants would 
remain in their employ, no canoes would be at 
their service, no food supplied for sale. A regu- 
lar boycott. But, almost every white Trader did 
as he pleased, even in carrying out unjust or out- 
rageous plans (if only those plans were not 
against any of the Chief's family) by first mak- 
ing a judicious distribution of gifts to the Chief. 
This was regarded by the natives as tribute. So 
accepted was this as a regular, almost govern- 
mental, obligation, that Chiefs were accustomed 
to send some of their people once a week to the 
white man's Trading-house for a specified amount 
of tobacco, rum, salt-meat, ship's biscuit, cloth 
and other smaller articles. The white man found 
it convenient to make the payments at the same 
time as his regular Saturday afternoon's settle- 
ments with his own servants. That regular trib- 
ute was known among the people as "Saturday." 



76 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

On the occasion of my own location at Kangwe 
in 1876, the Chief of that region sent a slave 
with his ebony-wood staff, as sign of authority, 
demanding that I give him "Saturday." I in- 
dignantly ordered him away, sent a message dis- 
regarding his authority, and in my dealings with 
the people never recognized him, and used the aid 
of a younger man who was more reasonable in 
his attitude toward me. 

My financial dealings were so small, compared 
with those of the Traders, that my refusal to pay 
tribute, while it lessened my intercourse with the 
Chief himself, widened my interests with the en- 
tire community; and, while it lost me the power 
to do many things arbitrarily, increased for me 
the personal respect of the tribe, by my demon- 
strating that I did not wish to be arbitrary, and 
that I asked of people only to do and be done 
unto what was just. 

As Nyare's women sold me food and were at- 
tentive to Mrs. Nassau, his children came to 
school, and his men occasionally worked for me, 
I gave him formal respect before their eyes, 
though I was rapidly losing any respect I may 
have had for his character. I gave him gifts at 
no regular time (lest I should seem to acknowl- 
edge any obligation for "tribute"). The gifts 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 77 

were generally for some slight services or favor 
rendered; but always beyond what that service 
or favor was worth. It was part of the universal 
custom of the country that friends should ex- 
change. But I observed that Nyare never gave 
me any gifts in return. That was not '^friend- 
ship" ; and I began to feel restive, lest my gifts 
should be considered as ''tribute." For, his re- 
quests became too frequent. 

There was also a more serious matter. The 
white Traders, in submitting to a Chief's domina- 
tion, were allowed to do almost any thing except 
trade directly with members of any interior tribe. 
Those tribes had to bring their ivory or other 
produce to the chief; he sold it for them to the 
white man, and took his "commission" in the 
transaction. The owner of the ivory was never 
allowed to be present or in any way to deal with 
the Traders. Nor would the Trader, for any 
consideration, have been allowed to go on a jour- 
ney with goods with which to buy directly from 
these other tribes. His Chief "owned" him and 
his goods ! And held a monopoly of Trade with 
him. So far was this system carried, that, if 
trade became poor, or, for any reason, the white 
man desired to remove elsewhere, himself might 
be permitted to go, but he was not allowed to 



78 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

take his goods with him. They "belonged" to 
the Chief. The trader could take his property 
only by secret flight at night. Traders submitted 
to this dictation because, as a consideration, they 
were allowed by the Chief, in all other matters, 
a slave-holder's power, equal to his own. Mis- 
sionaries never submitted to any such claims. 
But, In regard to Nyare, I began to feel that he 
was throwing around me more and more the 
appearance of domination. I felt restricted. 
Fewer people came to visit me. The extent of 
my work was limited. People who feared 
Nyare's violence hesitated to come to my 
home. I was becoming "Nyare's white man." 
I might not have resented his assumption 
that he owned me and my goods. If, as a 
result, he had not stepped still farther, and 
given out the impression that he governed the 
Station. His village was only a few hundred 
yards down river, which just there was exceed- 
ingly swift. Canoes coming up stream had hard 
work paddling against the current. From the 
landing-place of his village, he could see who and 
what the canoes contained, as they slowly worked 
their way past him. And when they had success- 
fully tolled, and reached the quieter water oppo- 
site my premises, they were accustomed to rest in 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 79 

the mouth of the little mountain stream whose 
favorable landing-place had first attracted me to 
Talaguga. If Nyare observed in the passing 
canoes any debtor, or even an innocent member 
of a family or tribe against whom he had for any 
reason a grudge, he would follow them on to my 
premises, and have a quarrel with them at my 
landing. I protested. But he continued. He 
even went so far as to demand tribute of all pass- 
ing canoes at the landing, even if there was noth- 
ing due to him from any one of them as a fine 
for debt. This was plainly an offense (even ac- 
cording to native view), to my right as possessor 
of that ground. I had named and explained that 
on the day of my formal purchase of the land: 
the assembled people had assented; and Mam- 
yaga and Nyare had made their "marks" to the 
deed. Even visitors, who had no goods, but who 
were coming to see me, and to whom I would thus 
have had an opportunity of telling the Gospel 
Story, were watched at my landing by this Nyare 
to see if secretly they were bringing something to 
sell directly to me, without first having given him 
his "commission." 

This was the breaking point of my endurance 
of Nyare's assumptions. He was limiting my 
Gospel work (not that he cared at all for the 



8o IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Gospel). Strangers became afraid to come to the 
Station. My hands were being tied. I firmly and 
decidedly but kindly told him of this wrong; how 
he was breaking even the universal native law that 
a visitor should in no wise be assailed the while 
he was a "guest" in a village limits; that these 
visitors were my "guests" and on my ground; that 
he had no authority over them; that, on my own 
ground, I was "chief" equal to him, bound to de- 
fend my visitors, and that I would do so if he 
continued to offend. He promised to desist. But 
he broke his promises. 

One day, from the hill-side, looking down 
stream, I saw two canoes containing about a 
dozen men, with their goods, toiling past the 
rapids opposite Nyare's village. They evidently 
were afraid of something; and I saw them flee 
into the mouth of my stream. And then I saw 
Nyare with twelve men filing behind him, each 
one armed with gun and spear and dagger. They 
were marching from his village, on my premises, 
along the path by the river-bank, to attack the 
visitors. My long-enduring patience broke. I 
was angry. And in my anger I was reckless. 
Snatching up my sixteen-repeating Winchester 
rifle, I said to my wife, "I don't care if I die 
to-day! I'm going to stop Nyare's outrages!" 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 8i 

She did not oppose me; and I hastened alone out 
of the house and down the hill. My regular six 
men, members of the down-river "superior" Gal- 
wa tribe (and therefore not subservient to Nyare) 
who were my boat's crew for journeys, and work- 
men at other times, were at work elsewhere on 
the premises out of sight or call. At the water- 
side Nyare's twelve men were standing silent. 
They all knew me. Some had worked for me. 
All had been friendly with me. But he was yell- 
ing his defiance and demands to the men in the 
two canoes, who all seemed cowed by fear, and 
who already had handed him certain pieces of 
goods. I did not know, nor do I to this day 
know, whether they were debtors or even worse, 
and were paying him just dues, or whether they 
were submitting in terror to his piratical demands 
for "tribute." I did not care to inquire. It was 
enough for me that he was openly over-riding 
me, trespassing on my premises, and breaking a 
solemnly recognized law of native oriental right 
that forbade assault on a guest, in whose defense 
that oriental custom demanded that I should make 
a demonstration. I did not intend to shoot 
Nyare; but, to that limit, I was reckless of what 
might happen. I did not speak; I was too angry 
to speak. Nor did I point the rifle at him. With 



82 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

one hand on the stock, and the other on the muz- 
zle, I dashed the barrel against his chest, saying 
fiercely, "Get out!" My passion made me 
stronger than he. He was utterly surprised at my 
sudden force. And I was pushing him back- 
wards to the brink of the steep bank into the 
river. He seized his flint-lock gun, cocked it, and 
was pointing It at my bosom. I dropped my right 
hand from my rifle's stock, and swept aside and 
held his muzzle. He instantly seized with his 
left hand my stock. Thus, each with one hand 
on his own weapon, and the other on the weapon 
of the other, we sawed the air with the two guns, 
neither being able to bring his own Into firing- 
line. And I was slowly backing him over the 
edge of the bank. I scarcely thought of his dozen 
men. They did not touch me. But, suddenly, 
Rve of them flung their arms about him to save 
him from falling Into the river; and at the same 
time they forced from him his gun. This I saw 
was help for me. So that when, at the same time, 
three others of them threw their hands about me, 
and attempted to take away my rifle, I allowed 
them to do so. I felt that their hands were 
friendly. But he was raging fearfully. The 
fight was not done. He felt the indignity to his 
"chieftainship," In having been struck. All his 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 83 

natural viciousness concentrated itself in an in- 
sane effort to kill me. I backed up against a 
tree (so that there should be no assault from be- 
hind) and, saying nothing, only looked at him 
with the cold steady eye that all natives dread of 
a white man. For, I instantly saw that his own 
people were to be my defenders. Deprived of 
his gun, he whipped out his long dagger, and 
stabbed at my abdomen. The point was very 
close; but, in a flash, I seized his wrist with one 
hand. And the same five men forced the dagger 
from his hand. He then looked around for some 
stick or billet with which to strike me. But those 
five held him off. And the other three stood by 
me, protesting their friendship. Then I spoke; 
but still angrily: "Friendship! Where are 
friends? Do they come with guns and spears 
to fight the friend and his guests?" "But, Nasa, 
quiet I We are friends ! And you did not come 
here to Talaguga to fight! Do not be angry!" 
"True, I did not come here to fight. But it is 
you who make war. I am only defending. You 
are breaking your own sacred native custom 
against my guests." "Yes, you are right. We 
were wrong to come as we did. Nov/ be friends." 
"No ! no friendship while you stand here with 
your own guns and keeping mine." They gave 



84 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

me back my rifle, saying, "Now are we friends?" 
"No ! not till you go away with your guns, and 
come back another day without them." They 
began to leave, one by one; and the five said to 
Nyare, "You have brought the white man's anger 
on us!" and they snatched up the goods the timid 
canoe-men had given; and, handing them back, 
they said to the strangers, "We made a mistake 
to-day in coming on to the white man's ground. 
We will wait for your next journey, and will 
catch you on the river." To that I made no 
protest. The river was a public highway. Pos- 
sibly, the canoe-men were guilty. But, innocent 
or guilty, I had defended not so much them as 
oriental custom. And they timidly had not lifted 
a hand to assist in their own defense ! Nyare 
was still grumbling and threatening. I was 
keeping my eye steadily on his movements, and 
had not looked behind me nor to right or left. 
Just then a boy's hand was laid on my arm. It 
was the lad who waited on our table. And he 
gave me a penciled note in Mrs. Nassau's hand- 
writing: — "Had you not better send word to 
Njoli Post for assistance from the French?" I 
looked around. There, only two rods behind me 
on the hill-side above me, my wife was standing ! 
She had followed me down the hill, had witnessed 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 85 

the fight, and wisely and bravely had not weak- 
ened me by interference of hand or voice. 
She had been praying while I had been fight- 
ing. 

Nyare left with the last of his company. I 
comforted the visitors, assuring them that I would 
defend them and all others, and asking them to 
report to all other places what I had done for 
them, so that no strangers should have any fear 
to visit Talaguga. They ate their lunch, and de- 
parted in peace. After my breakfast next day, I 
sent three of my people in a canoe the five miles 
up river to the Commandant at Njoli Post with 
a little offering of some of Mrs. Nassau's dainty 
pastry. I did not ask him for aid or protection. 
I preferred to rely on native sense of justice and 
their conviction that I was just and acting only 
within my rights. But, I asked the Commandant 
what would have been my status before French 
Law if I had shot Nyare. He sent a courteous 
reply, offering protection, as follows: (I copy 
exactly his imperfect English.) 

"I am really ashamed of your present, you 
are too much kind for me and I do not know 
trully how I could thank for you. Please be 
sure that, in the occurrence, I will oblige you if I 
can. I am very glad that your palaver with the 



86 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Fangwe Is done. My opinion is that they will 
never trouble you again, but, in case, I would be 
to your disposition to protect Mrs. Nassau and 
you. So, do not be afraid to send your boat for 
help if it was some palaver again. I should go 
myself with my soldiers. Please offer my respects 
to Mrs. Nassau." 

Subsequently on a visit he said that the only 
fault he found in my action of that morning was 
that I had not shot Nyare when he thrust that 
dagger at me. 

That I had sent a word to the French Govern- 
mental representative was soon reported in the 
villages. Doubtless there was exaggeration in 
the report. Nyare gathered his women and 
goods, and fled to the forest, leaving his huts to 
be burned by the expected French soldiers. As, 
however, no French appeared, one of his men 
timidly came to me the next day, asking whether 
I would permit Nyare to return to his village. I 
was willing to allow the fear of France to trouble 
him, and did not say what I would or would not 
do; but told him that the village should not be 
burned, and that I had not ordered Nyare to flee. 
On the following day he and his people returned 
from the forest. 

Six weeks later I witnessed a remarkable sight. 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 87 

Looking from my door on the hilltop, I saw an- 
other procession, but unlike the previous hostile 
one. There was Nyare (whose repeated efforts 
at reconciliation I had refused) and those same 
dozen men, but all unarmed, with women and 
children and slaves, and each carrying something, 
cassava-bread, plantains, fruits, fowls, a goat and 
other things. They silently filed up the hill and 
on to my little veranda. And silently they depos- 
ited those things at my feet. That meant that 
they were not for sale, but gifts. They waited, 
according to native custom, that I should salute 
Nyare, that one salutation being sufficient also 
for them all. I did not salute or even look at 
him. I saluted the women and children. That, 
from native point of view, was not only discour- 
teous but insulting to him. To give despised 
women and unimportant children a recognition 
that was withheld from his chieftain-self! I in- 
tended the discourtesy as part of his punishment. 
I made myself affable with his head-wife Nyamba 
(a woman who, under civilization, would have 
been called queenly). She observed that I took 
no notice of the gifts. That, too, was a discour- 
tesy, to seem to despise a gift. She asked, did I 
not see them? ''Yes, I see; but, carry them 
away." Nyare then spake, "But, why? Are we 



88 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

not friends? And do not friends give and re- 
ceive gifts?" "Yes: I will be friendly with your 
people, but not with you. Your dagger cut our 
friendship." "But I have come to mend it." 
"No, never!" "Will you never give me a gift?" 
"I will. And you and your people shall come 
and go as you like, and I will come to your village 
as formerly. I take these things to-day as a fine 
for your assault, but I will refuse ever to accept 
any thing from you in friendship." That was 
humiliating to him. And that was the attitude 
I maintained during all the subsequent three years 
of his residence there. The report of it spread 
everywhere. Other tribes learned that Nyare was 
not so great as he had claimed to be, and that 
he did not "own" the white man. That report 
went the seventy miles down river to my old 
Kangwe Station. I had need every month to 
send my canoe there for mails and supplies. On 
the way, the tribes and villages were having 
chronic quarrels, assaults, and captures. Some- 
times my crew were afraid to run the gauntlet. 
But, after that report of my action, so great be- 
came the respect for me, that when occasionally 
my canoe was pursued by people who had not 
recognized at first whose it was, my men needed 
only to call out, "We are Nassau's!", and their 



MY FIGHT WITH NYARE 89 

pursuers would cease; in departing, saying, "Go 
on, in peace; we do not fight with Nasa. He is a 
man." Best of all; people in the far interior 
learned that Nyare's power was broken, and that 
they were perfectly safe to visit the Missionhouse. 
Thenceforward I had visitors who came from an 
hundred miles distant, having heard exaggerated 
reports of the wonderful things to be seen at 
"Nasa's house," its organ, sewing-machine, me- 
chanical toys, etc. ; all of which, to the supersti- 
tious strangers, seemed to have some witchcraft 
about their hidden movements, but which I ex- 
plained so differently from their own fetish sor- 
cery-doctors. After their curiosity had been 
satisfied, I always gathered them on the veranda, 
their leader, his women and retainers, often as 
many as fifty, and I preached Jesus unto them. 
Before they left, I assured myself that they under- 
stood at least one word. "Now say to me what I 
have been telling you. Whose name did I 
speak?" "Jesu." "And who was He?" "The 
son of Njambe-Creator." "And what did He 
come to earth for?" "To forgive our sins." 
"I told you. He would forgive you, if you prayed 
to Him. Now tell all this story to your people 
far away when you go back to them." I am 
sure that Story has been re-told to the thousands 



90 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

whom I never met, by those who never could 
have come to me, had I not opened the way by my 
fight against Nyare's attempt at domination and 
restriction. 



VI 



GORILLA-HUNTING 



Gorillas are limited in their habitat. Of all 
the continents, they exist only in Africa. And, in 
Africa, they exist only in the Western Equatorial 
portion, in a region about 700 miles square. 
North of the Equator as far as 5 degrees north 
latitude; and south of the Equator as far as the 
Kongo; and extending interior about 800 miles. 
It is noticeable that this same gorilla region is 
also the only portion of Africa where the lion is 
scarcely known. This remarkable coincidence is 
due probably to the fact that, in all the other 
more open parts of the continent, the lion finds 
abundance of food in the large herds of antelopes 
and other wild animals that constitute its prey. 
But in the Great Forest, though wild oxen, an- 
telopes, and-so-forth are found, they do not exist 
in such numbers as would satisfy the lion. The 
dense shades of that Forest, and especially the 
almost impenetrable jungles of the deltas, whose 

91 



92 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

rivers empty into the South Atlantic, are the 
chosen and favorable retreats of the gorilla. 

One of these rivers, the Ogowe, entering the 
ocean by at least four mouths some sixty to 
eighty miles south of the Equator, was the spe- 
cial region where DuChaillu hunted his gorillas 
in 1850. As that same Ogowe region was my 
home during 1 874-1 891, I was living in the very 
heart of the gorilla habitat. 

What I then learned from native information 
and my own observation satisfied me that Du- 
Chaillu's accounts, at first regarded by many as 
exaggerated, are in the main correct. He errs, 
however, in saying that the gorilla is not grega- 
rious, and that it makes a noise as loud as a drum 
by beating its breast with its hands. It does 
beat its breast in anger; but its noise "like thun- 
der" is a native exaggeration. 

That it is gregarious I know; for I once saw 
the tracks and sleeping-places, still warm from 
their recent presence, of a herd of twenty. And 
a native on the Bonito River told me, in 1866, of 
his seeing a fleeing herd of thirty. Possibly in 
his excitement he counted more than there really 
were. A young man, on the Ogowe, told me he 
had seen a company of five. Three are often 
seen together. Commonly they are seen singly, 



GORILLA-HUNTING 93 

a male, or a mother and her child. In the mating 
season, the male mates with from four to six 
females, usually about four. These he keeps 
guard over; no other wild animal makes any ap- 
proach to him in watchfulness as a sentinel. He 
Is brutal and selfish. A male has been known to 
snatch from its mother's arms an infant gorilla, 
and fling It Into a bee's nest, In order to seize the 
honey-comb, after the enraged bees had concen- 
trated on the helpless baby. Mothers will fight 
for their young; but if wounded, will desert them. 
Though so strong as justly to be called (In ab- 
sence of the lion) King of the Great Forest, In 
common with all the other animals inhabiting the 
Forests, he exhibits fear of man. He avoids any 
approach to human habitations. His haunts are 
usually in the densest part of almost impenetrable 
jungles, but not far from some stream of water; 
and when approached by man he almost invariably 
flies. WInwood Reade hunted for months over 
DuChalllu's route, and for weeks failed even to 
see a gorilla. The young ones hang upon their 
mother's back when escaping; but. If they are 
thrown off in any way, the fear of the mother is 
so great that she does not stop to protect or re- 
cover her young. But, If wounded, or escape is 
cut off, or unable to retreat, the gorilla, male or 



94 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

female, will defend itself as long as life is left. 
But, as for offensively attacking man, as averred 
by DuChaillu, I do not think it probable. Ex- 
cept under certain conditions, as, when, in the 
mating season, occasionally, a male gorilla is left 
without a mate. In such cases, the mated males 
and females unite in driving this unmated fel- 
low from their presence, and for several months 
he becomes a morose bachelor, to whom life is a 
vexation, and who, like "rogue" elephants, seeks 
to attack other beings. If DuChaillu ran across 
such a customer as this, it is not improbable that, 
having no Mrs. Gorilla and babies to care for, 
it made no effort to escape, and, upon being ap- 
proached, gave battle to the explorer. The food 
of the gorilla consists only of berries and other 
wild fruits. Among these are the large red ber- 
ries of the Phrynium, and the aromatic pods of 
the Amomum, and numerous wild oily nuts, re- 
sembling in taste chestnuts and walnuts. In its 
wild state it is solely graminivorous; but, even 
in captivity, it does not readily accept even cooked 
meat. On one of the African steamers, on which 
I was a passenger, a very valuable half-grown 
gorilla died of starvation because its supply of 
bananas was exhausted. It refused all else. Mon- 
keys and chimpanzees, when domesticated, long 



GORILLA-HUNTING 95 

for cooked meats. Other graminivorous wild 
animals in the forest, such as elephants, hippo- 
potami and antelopes, find their food on leaves 
and twigs and grasses by river banks or on prai- 
ries. These all like the plants and vegetables of 
native plantations, where they are very destruc- 
tive. The gorilla, overcoming temporarily its 
fear of human proximity, joins these other depre- 
dators in seeking the bananas, plantains and 
sugar-cane. 

The gorilla's resting-places at night are at the 
base of hollow trees, in the grasses of occasional 
small open spots or glades in the forest, but 
preferably between the buttresses which many 
kinds of large trees throw out from their trunks 
toward several points of the compass as props 
against the force of tornadoes, thus making con- 
venient corners in which to lie. They are said 
also to occupy the crotches or forks of the lower 
branches of trees. But they are chimpanzees who 
usually choose those forks and build rough nests 
there with broken branches. I do not think that 
the gorilla makes any nest or house. I have seen 
the resting-places of both gorillas and chimpan- 
zees (not together) in all such spots. 

The gorilla's strength is enormous. It is the 
habit of newcomers to Africa to underrate the 



96 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

gorilla. But the fearful reach of Its long limbs, 
width of shoulders, size of chest, and strength 
of arm and hand make me readily believe in its 
ability to bend a gun-barrel. A French Protestant 
missionary friend, at the time recently arrived in 
the Ogowe, In a conversation before he had ever 
seen a gorilla, said to me that If attacked by a 
gorilla he did not see why he should not be able 
to seize it by the arms and wrestle with it as he 
would with any human assailant. Some time 
afterward, when that friend was again visiting 
me. It happened that the carcass of an adult male 
gorilla was brought to me for purchase. It was 
the largest specimen I had ever seen. I called 
my friend to inspect it. He looked at It; but 
positively refused to come near it, so great was 
the Impression Its horrible face and enormous 
muscles made on him. 

When a gorilla gets into a fight, his opponent 
Is pretty sure to get hurt. For, with the gorilla, 
It is war to the death. The skeletons have been 
found of a leopard and a gorilla locked In each 
other's embrace. In these fights the gorilla clasps 
his powerful arms around the leopard, and, hold- 
ing him with a vise-like grip, crushes him to death, 
while the jaws of the leopard are fastened upon 
the throat of the gorilla. In the meantime, the 



GORILLA-HUNTING 97 

leopard, with its sharp claws and muscular hind 
legs, literally disembowels the gorilla. In at- 
tacking human beings, it possibly may, as Du- 
Chaillu describes, stand erect on its hind legs; 
but usually it advances in half-stooping posture, 
with an extended foot, seizes with its toes, drags 
down with its hands, disembowels by its claw-like 
finger-nails, or tears with its teeth and fearful 
jaws. It would be hopeless for a man to attempt 
to defend himself by stabbing with a knife as 
bear hunters have sometimes done; the gorilla's 
long arms would reach the man before the lat- 
ter could touch it with his knife. A spear might 
be used, if the hunter was sure that his first thrust 
would be fatal. Otherwise the gorilla would in- 
stantly snatch the spear from him. Similarly, a 
gun's fire must be fatal, or (as natives assert) it 
too will be seized and turned aside. (This would 
be true only of native "trade" flint-lock guns, the 
appreciable interval of time, between the flash of 
whose pan and the impact of the slugs used as 
bullets, actually gives the active beast time to 
dodge.) A native hunter, in approaching the 
gorilla, reserves his fire until so close that there 
can be no dodging. But, woe to him, if his gun 
only flashes in the pan, or the wounds by the 
slugs fail to be immediately fatal. Gorilla-hunt- 



98 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

ing is especially difficult, because of, besides the 
usual alertness of all wild animals, its quick move- 
ments (notwithstanding its apparent awkward- 
ness), — its sharp, almost human instincts, — its 
dangerousness if only wounded, and its ferocity, 
revealed, more than by other wild animals, by its 
eye. There is an added difficulty, because of the 
density of the thickets it preferably inhabits in 
abandoned plantations, or even of the ordinary 
jungles surrounding the clearings of plantations 
actually in use. 

It is noticeable that women are the ones 
by whom gorillas are more frequently met; for, 
women, not men, are the constant workers in these 
gardens, which are from half a mile to a mile 
distant from the villages. Perhaps because 
women are timid and always unarmed is the rea- 
son why they are sometimes pursued by these 
beasts. Stories are told of gorillas' pursuit and 
abduction of women. But I do not regard them 
as authentic. The following tale was written in 
his native Benga dialect by a man of Corisco 
Island. I give a translation of it, regarding it 
rather as a legend. 

This legend is really believed, and was reported 
as having actually occurred. The thought of a 
gorilla terrifies women in going through the forest 



GORILLA-HUNTING 99 

to their plantations. But, while It is true that 
the gorilla uses its great teeth to bite and destroy 
in its anger, it never eats flesh. It lives entirely 
on fruits and vegetables, notwithstanding the na- 
tive statement In this story. That statement is 
probably only the impossible feat, prominent in 
native folk-lore, of the beast playing the part of 
a human being: 

"A certain woman went to the forest to do her 
work in her plantation. All the morning she spent 
in doing these works, then she said, 'I am going 
back to the village.' 

''Late in the afternoon, when near the village, 
and not looking ahead, she did not see a gorilla 
coming, and she met it on the path. It took her 
back with it to the depths of the forest, on, and 
on, to the base of a great tree. It also clasped 
the woman tightly at the base of the tree, where 
it was sitting, and said, 'I will eat her only in the 
morning' (For the gorilla does not eat at night 
anything it has killed in the afternoon). 

"Now, before the gorilla had brought her 
there, she had her basket with her on her back. 
At midnight, the gorilla being asleep, the woman 
gradually withdrew one arm, but the gorilla, half- 
awakened, held her again fast, sitting up and 
clasping her. 



100 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

"Later on, in the early morning, sleep said to 
the gorilla, 'I've caught you!' And it reclined in 
sleep, all its arms and legs extended. Then the 
woman slowly drew up her body, and seizing a 
bundle of large leaves which was in the basket, 
thrust them into the wide-opened mouth of the 
gorilla, clear down into its throat. Then she did 
not wait an instant, and she did nothing else but 
run rapidly to the village to tell the people. When 
they came, they found the gorilla dead." 

The young of the chimpanzee have sometimes 
been mistaken by unscientific observers for young 
gorillas. But they differ both in their looks and 
in their traits. The former readily accept human 
handling and domestication; the latter are mo- 
rose. The adults of either of these two beasts 
would never be mistaken for each other. The 
chimpanzees are much smaller, and in the forest 
are more gregarious. And they do not hesitate 
to approach human habitations. 

In 1903 I was visiting in a village on the left 
bank of the estuary of the Gaboon River. This 
hamlet was only a collection of four or five huts, 
hastily built on the edge of a prairie that skirts 
the forest, a few hundred yards distant. It was 
not what the inhabitants would call their "town" 
residence. That was in a larger collection of 



GORILLA-HUNTING loi 

well-built houses, with regular streets, and near 
the seaside. This country-house was for conve- 
nient going to and from their plantations of cas- 
sava and plantains, which are pitifully depredated 
by elephants, wild oxen, and pigs, antelopes, chim- 
panzees, monkeys and other wild beasts. 

In the cool of the afternoon, when all such ani- 
mals are either gathering to their night shelters 
or are starting out to depredate (according to 
their diurnal or nocturnal habits) and at such 
times are calling to each other, I heard a great 
outcry of chimpanzees. Apparently they could 
not have been more than half a mile distant in 
the forest. The tones of their voices were dis- 
tinct and varied, evidently indicating a variety 
of feelings. Some of the cries seemed to be of 
angry authority, others of indignant protest, 
others of timid fear, and others of physical pain. 

I asked my native friends what were the ani- 
mals doing that they made such outcries, so dif- 
ferent from what I had heard at other times else- 
where, and which were only ordinary and un- 
excited calls. I was told that the cries came either 
from a female beaten by its male, a child beaten 
by a parent, or, more probably, a slave beaten 
by the company. I was surprised at the word 
*'slave." On consideration, I felt that the state- 



102 IN A^ ELEPHANT CORRAL 

ment was possible, when I recalled that it is 
known that certain ants hold other ants in menial 
service. 

My host asserted that chimpanzees condemned 
some one or more of their company to be their 
burden-bearers. Not that they did not all carry 
burdens, but that uncomfortable or heavy or extra 
loads were put on this poor slave. Some times he 
would rebel or protest. Then he would be beaten 
either with their heavy hands, or by any stick or 
club picked up on the spot. 

As I listened, it seemed to me that that was just 
what was being done at that very moment. When 
the yells of objurgation by the masters, and the 
screams of protest by the slave, and the varied 
comments of the spectators had almost ceased, 
there continued, less and less, as the company 
evidently receded, the sobs and moans of the 
slave, now no longer resisting, but painfully ac- 
cepting his task. 

My host went on to tell me of other habits of 
the chimpanzees, and of their liking for the use 
of clubs. I asked him how they produced the 
drumming sound which I and other travelers had 
heard often, but never had actually had the chance 
of seeing performed; and which, in the case of 
the gorilla, DuChaillu believed was produced by 



GORILLA-HUNTING 103 

beating its huge breast with its fist. The reply- 
was, that while it is true that both gorilla and 
chimpanzee do beat their chests (generally in 
anger) the drumming sounds were not caused in 
that way. He said that they beat with sticks of 
wood either on hollow logs, or hollow trees, or 
on dry logs of some known resonant wood. This 
seemed reasonable, remembering the ^'drum- 
ming," by their wings on a log, of the males of 
certain game birds in the United States. 

Any single gorilla is a terror to any native. A 
single chimpanzee is not. But a company of 
them can put to flight all women and even un- 
armed men. My host told me that the chimpan- 
zee, though naturally timid and generally harm- 
less, when emboldened by numbers, and aroused 
in defense of their young, will seize the nearest 
stick of wood and, rushing at their human in- 
vader, will beat him into precipitate flight. 

It is a common native assertion, and believed 
by some of them, that the chimpanzee (and all 
other classes of monkeys) can talk with human 
voice if they choose to do so ; but that they choose 
not to so do, lest Mankind, finding them thus 
amenable to reason, should seize them and make 
slaves of them. 

My informant went on to say, "the chimpanzee 



104 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

is accustomed sometimes to act like a human be- 
ing when a person Is on the point of shooting it 
with a gun. If It Is a female, then It takes hold 
of Its breast and shows It to that person, thus 
seeming to say, 'Do you not know that I am a 
woman, as your mother? The breast that you 
sucked Is just like this; and you, do you say you 
want to kill me?' The chimpanzee has other hu- 
man habits also. When it has born a child, then 
it takes leaves and other articles of medicine and 
puts them on the frontal openings of the head; 
which is just like what we people do." 

After the Interest aroused In scientific circles 
by DuChalllu's tales in i860, efforts were made 
in England and Europe to obtain living speci- 
mens; but for many years without success. For 
a number of years the Zoological Society of Lon- 
don kept a standing offer of £1,000 for the de- 
livery of a live gorilla on the Liverpool dock. 
This tempting offer aroused traders on the Equa- 
torial rivers in efforts to induce the natives to 
capture and sell the rare beast. About the year 
1877 a young friend of mine, a Mr. Woodward, 
trading as clerk for an English firm, near my 
Kangwe Mission-station In the Ogowe River, and 
not far from the present French military post, 
Lambarene, secured a young female gorilla less 



GORILLA-HUNTING 105 

than two years of age. In my friendship for him 
I stinted myself of my supply of condensed milk 
to assist him in saving its valuable life. He 
nursed it tenderly as a human babe, and allowed 
it to sleep in his own bed, as it moaned when put 
away by itself. He kept it at his Trading-house 
for several months in order to domesticate it, and 
succeeded in having it eat rice and other fari- 
naceous food. When his term of service ended 
he started with his prize on the 6,000-mile steamer 
journey to England. When the island of Ma- 
deira was reached the gorilla was still in good 
health. And England was only eight days dis- 
tant! He telegraphed to London. 

On the journey he had been allowed special 
privileges. Instead of his prize being placed with 
the monkeys, parrots and other specimens that 
crowd an African steamer's deck, his gorilla was 
allowed the use of an unoccupied cabin. When 
within three days of land, while the sailors were 
giving the vessel its usual "house-cleaning" and 
fresh painting before entering port, they hap- 
pened to place their paint-pots overnight in that 
same cabin. The poor beast, attracted by the 
smell of the linseed oil, put her hands into the 
pots and licked off the paint. The white lead 
poisoned her, and she died. Even its carcass, 



io6 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

and especially its brain, would still have been 
valuable. I do not know what was done with it. 
Probably, in his disappointment, the owner cast 
it into the sea. 

Later, an effort was made by some Hamburg 
men. They sent out a naturalist to the Gaboon 
region with instructions to bring back a live go- 
rilla at any cost. Five young gorillas were se- 
cured, the youngest not six months old, and the 
oldest about two years. They were carefully 
placed in a large, specially constructed wooden 
box, only the front of which was barred, for the 
sake of ventilation. It was divided into three 
compartments, the division walls being also 
barred, instead of solid planking. The walls of 
the middle compartment were padded, so that 
the little beasts should not be injured by the toss- 
ing of waves on the sea-journey. 

In one of the end compartments were several 
grown chimpanzees; and in the other end were 
some rare specimens of monkeys. It was hoped 
that the sight and proximity of these beasts would 
comfort the little gorillas. I happened to be vis- 
iting at Libreville during the days that the Ham- 
burg naturalist was there awaiting a steamer. 
It was amusing to watch the movements of the 
chimpanzees. One of them was an elderly fe- 



GORILLA-HUNTING 107 

male, whose sympathies were aroused for the 
motherless gorilla, whose change of diet from 
breast-milk to other food griped the youngster, 
and kept it continually whining and moaning. 
The chimpanzee would reach through and pat 
the little thing on the head, expressing in her 
looks and actions real sympathy. But sympathy 
did not restore him to his mother nor remove 
his colic; and continuing to moan incessantly, the 
patience of the old chimpanzee became exhausted, 
and, reaching through, she caught the little fel- 
low, held him down with one paw, and spanked 
him with the other, precisely as a human mother 
does her naughty boy. 

When I was on furlough in the United States 
during i872-'73, my friend, Thomas G. Morton, 
M.D., of Philadelphia, was deeply interested by 
the above information I had given him concern- 
ing gorillas, and asked me to endeavor to obtain 
for him a specimen. There had never been in 
America a living specimen. There were one or 
two stuffed specimens, and parts of skeletons. 
But nothing perfect. I promised him. And on 
my return to Africa in 1874, was sent by my so- 
ciety to open a new and untried field as the first 
missionary to the Ogowe River. This was in the 
very center of the gorilla habitat. In my itinera- 



io8 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

tions I had, Incidentally, opportunities of coming 
upon gorillas. But, for years I failed to secure 
one. In 1878 I succeeded. I wrote to Dr. Mor- 
ton, as follows: — 

*'Kangwe Hill, Ogowe River, Kongo-Francals, 

South-West Africa, April 19, 1878. 
My dear Doctor: 

I am glad to Inform you that I have at last 
obtained a gorilla carcass for you. It is not 
what I would have preferred, or perhaps what 
you wanted, I. e., an adult. But adults are not 
very often killed, and apparently never caught; so 
I consider myself fortunate that I have even this. 

Formerly, had this been killed by natives liv- 
ing even a few hours distant, I could have ob- 
tained, probably, only an imperfect skin and a 
portion of the larger bones, the small bones would 
have been lost In the cooking of the flesh. (Not 
all these tribes eat gorilla; the Inland tribes, e. g., 
the Fang and Bakele, do.) Now the* natives have 
learned that we white people want skins, and 
they will now flay a carcass with some care; but 
they have not appreciated that we want all the 
bones of the skeleton. This specimen died at the 
adjacent English Trading-house, much to the dis- 
appointment of the owner, who had expected to 



GORILLA-HUNTING 109 

make a small fortune out of it, had he succeeded 
in carrying it alive to England. When it died 
he gave it to me, because, while it was living, I, 
rather than quarrel about it, had yielded it to 
him, our right of possession being in dispute. He 
had it for a few weeks, and it had become quite 
tame. It is a male, probably fifteen or eighteen 
months old. I do not know the exact cause of its 
death; probably inflammation of the bowels. 
When it was first brought to the trading-house by 
the natives, it was half starved, they having given 
it scarcely any food for a week; and its right arm 
above the elbow was broken by their violence in 
its capture. 

I immersed it in a twenty gallon cask of rum 
within six hours after its death; and, that the 
liquor might penetrate and bathe all the organs 
both below and above the diaphragm, I made 
two small incisions. The skin is not, therefore, 
spoiled, should you wish to stuff it. The constant 
diarrhoea had reduced the poor thing to half 
its proper bulk of flesh. I send the barrel the 
two hundred miles to Libreville, Gaboon, now 
by a small river steamer going there, where it will 
have to await the first opportunity by Yates and 
Porterfield's (an American firm) sailing vessels 
to New York. 



no IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

I send also an almost perfect skeleton of the 
largest adult male gorilla ever seen here. It 
must have been very old, for you will see that 
some of the teeth are decaying. The man who 
shot it told me that he surprised it one morning 
in his plantation, eating sugar-cane. As gorillas 
are generally gregarious, this may have been an 
outcast "rogue" ; for he was alone. The man 
shot it in the loins, and, although it fell fatally 
wounded, it attempted to rise and fight, when a 
second shot killed it. I had hired this man two 
years ago to bring me any gorilla he might kill, 
and he had been on the lookout. It was at this 
same village from which I obtained the imperfect 
skeleton I sent you more than a year ago. That 
village is down the river, and two days would be 
required to paddle up-stream to me; so this hunter 
had made no effort to bring me the entire thing; 
for he knew it would be decomposed. (Even 
our own human dead are expected by the Govern- 
ment to be buried in twelve hours after death.) 
The carcass he had allowed to rot where it lay; 
and, when the bones were cleared of the flesh, 
he brought them to me. As it is, I find that there 
are missing one tibia, one fibula, one clavicle, 
and at least five small bones of the hands and 
feet. 



GORILLA-HUNTING 1 1 1 

It is very rare to get so perfect an entire skele- 
ton of an adult. Heads alone are more frequent. 
The subject of gorillas has received quite a stimu- 
lus by the presence here of a German Zoologist 
who has come out for the express purpose of ob- 
taining a live gorilla. Notwithstanding his hav- 
ing aroused native cupidity (and consequently 
advanced the price of gorillas both dead and 
living) he has not, after many months' effort, ob- 
tained more than three living young gorillas, and 
they all died. Yet it is undeniable that gorillas 
are numerous in this part of Africa; but the big 
ones are too sly to be caught, and the little ones 
are too delicate to live. I do not know why they 
should be more delicate than monkeys; for, the 
four young gorillas I have seen during this last 
year in the hands of others, and the one I owned 
myself two years ago, were easily tamed and liked 
to be petted. But, when vexed, they would at- 
tempt to bite; and, when thwarted, would vio- 
lently dash their heads against the wall. They 
did not play as much as my monkeys, and I think 
that they pined for the forest." 

The white man at Libreville to whom I con- 
signed that barrel for forwarding to New York, 
in writing to a friend in the U. S., attempted to 
take for himself the credit for obtaining the first 



112 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

entire gorilla carcass "sent to America"; and he 
is so reported in a book published on wild ani- 
mals ! But, my consignment safely reached Dr. 
Morton, and was announced in the Philadelphia 
Evening Bulletin of July 30th, 1878, as fol- 
lows: "Dr. Thos. G. Morton, of this city, last 
week received from the Rev. R. H. Nassau, a 
missionary on the Ogowe River, West Africa, 
the carcass of a young two-year-old gorilla, which 
is said to be the first carcass of the kind ever 
brought to this country. Although subjected to 
a hot climate and a long journey, it was found 
on arrival to be in an excellent state of preserva- 
tion. Heretofore, only stuffed specimens of the 
animal have been seen in this country, with now 
and then an imperfect skeleton. But as this 
gorilla is entire, it will afford a good op- 
portunity for studying the structure and organs 
of the animal, and comparing them with those 
of man. 

"Soon after its arrival, the gorilla was photo- 
graphed by Gutekunst, who obtained a full length 
picture, together with an excellent profile of the 
head and a full face view. The pictures are of 
large size and show all the features of his Afri- 
can majesty with good effect. But a personal 
examination, of course, gives a better idea of the 



GORILLA-HUNTING 1 13 

animal than can be obtained from any written 
description. At present the carcass is in the 
Museum of the Pennsylvania Hospital, 8th and 
Spruce, where it was injected by W. Nash of the 
University, preparatory to being placed upon the 
dissecting table. It is the intention to have the 
carcass thoroughly and minutely examined. To 
do this, several months will be required, and Dr. 
H. C. Chapman has kindly consented to under- 
take the main part of this work, the results of 
which will be anxiously looked for by medical 
men and others. The specimen secured is that 
of a young male, but as the relations of the ani- 
mal to society remain undefined, the deceased is 
alluded to as 'it' instead of 'he.' A wasting 
disease reduced the carcass of the youthful gorilla 
considerably; but fortunately the organs, etc., 
are in a good condition for examination, as the 
carcass was placed in rum a few hours after 
death. 

"The head of the animal is quite large in pro- 
portion to the body, and looks as if it might have 
been the abode of much sagacity. A little tuft of 
hair remains above the left ear, the rest having 
been eaten of! by the liquor. The eyes are large, 
and were evidently bright and spirited during 
life; but one is closed now, and the whole coun- 



114 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

tenance has a melancholy appearance. The nose 
is very flat; the mouth large and prominent, while 
the ears are small. The arms, like those of the 
monkey family generally, are much longer in pro- 
portion to the size of the body than the legs; but 
the hands and feet have much of a human look 
about them, and indicate that the possessor had 
greater use for them than the monkey tribe. The 
arms as well as the legs are tufted with long 
black hair. What might have been an incipient 
beard is seen upon the receding chin, while a short 
stubby growth appears upon the upper lip. The 
limbs are quite thin, and the carcass generally has 
the same appearance. Altogether, however, the 
specimen is an interesting one, and Dr. Morton 
considers himself fortunate in having secured it. 
The post-mortem will doubtless reveal many in- 
teresting particulars in regard to the animal, and 
the microscopic studies will especially be looked 
forward to with much interest. In addition to 
the carcass, the skeleton of a full grown gorilla 
was received at the same time." 

Later, on the 31st of October, the following 
report of a meeting of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences was made in a Philadelphia newspaper: 
"The last meeting of the Academy was unusually 
well attended, the attraction being a communica- 



GORILLA-HUNTING 1 1 5 

tion from Dr. H. C. Chapman on the anatomy 
and zoological position of the gorilla. The 
speaker stated that he took great pleasure in 
acknowledging his indebtedness to Dr. Thomas 
G. Morton, of this city, for the very rare chance 
of dissecting a young specimen of this animal, it 
having been seldom done abroad, and never be- 
fore in this country, as far as he knew. For a num- 
ber of years past, Dr. Morton has made numerous 
efforts to obtain a gorilla; and finally, through 
the kind offices of Rev. R. H. Nassau, of a mis- 
sionary station in the Ogowe country, a hundred 
miles below the equator in Africa, succeeded, in 
the early part of the summer, in getting to Phila- 
delphia the subject of the present communication. 
The specimen was sent from the Gaboon River 
preserved in rum; and, through the excellent pre- 
caution of Dr. Nassau, was received here, con- 
sidering all the circumstances, in an excellent state 
of preservation. Owing to his numerous profes- 
sional engagements, Dr. Morton was unable to 
dissect any part of the animal himself, except the 
right leg. Before proceeding further with his 
remarks. Dr. Chapman took occasion to call at- 
tention to a superb skeleton of an adult gorilla 
presented to the Academy this evening by Dr. 
Morton. Dr. Nassau, from whom this was also 



ii6 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

received, states that it is the largest specimen seen 
by himself or other Europeans in the Ogowe 
country. It stands about five feet six inches in 
height, and will form an exceedingly valuable 
addition to the Museum. Dr. Chapman believed 
that the cause of death of the young gorilla dis- 
sected by him was phthisis, as the lungs were 
found upon examination to be very much decom- 
posed. All monkeys in a state of captivity are 
more or less subject to this disease. When re- 
ceived, the specimen measured twenty-one inches 
from the heel to the crown of the head; the upper 
extremities were seventeen and a half inches, and 
the lower thirteen and a half inches long, the tips 
of the fingers reaching three and a half inches 
below the knee when the animal stood erect. The 
length of the upper extremities is consequent upon 
the peculiar gait of the animal, which shuffles 
along semi-erect on all fours, using the extended 
hand as a fulcrum, and not flexing the fingers like 
the chimpanzee. A very noticeable difference in 
this young male, as compared with an old one, is 
the entire absence from the head of the crest or 
ridge of bone running along the top of the skull, 
which is so characteristic a feature of the adult 
male. The young gorilla, however, exhibits that 
width and elongation of the face and massiveness 



GORILLA-HUNTING 117 

of the jaws which give the animal such a brutal 
expression, and an approach to which we see in 
the Papuans, Hottentots, Caffirs and others of 
the lower tribes of mankind." The report con- 
tinued with a technical anatomical description, 
and a scientific discussion of the gorilla's position 
as related to other monkeys and mankind. And, 
"Dr. Leidy took occasion to express to Dr. Mor- 
ton the thanks of the Academy for his magnifi- 
cent gift of an adult gorilla skeleton." 

Subsequently, on my furlough in this country 
during 18 80-1 881, Dr. Morton asked me to ob- 
tain for him a gorilla brain. The brain of the lit- 
tle one dissected by Dr. Chapman in 1878 was 
decomposed and unfit for examination; as, though 
my incisions into the abdomen and chest had al- 
lowed the rum to enter and preserve the viscera, 
I had neglected to make any opening into the 
brain cavity. I told him I thought I could obtain 
one. And he sent with me, on my return to Africa 
in 188 1, a carboy of chloride of zinc in which to 
preserve the brain should I get it. I made efforts 
during the eight following years, and failed; for 
those efforts were always secondary to my minis- 
terial work on my missionary journeys. So, re- 
gretfully, I wrote him that I gave up the hope 
of getting a brain in any incidental way. I had 



ii8 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

clung to the hope, and had had a decided belief 
that I could obtain it. But I came to the con- 
viction that it was impossible, except for an ex- 
plorer or traveler or some one who would make 
a business of it, hampered by nothing else, and 
who could sit down in a native village for a few 
weeks, hiring the hunters to go out daily. This 
is the way DuChaillu obtained his dozen speci- 
mens (now in the British Museum). 

Later, in 1889, I determined to take a short 
vacation from my Talaguga home, to a region 
more frequented by gorillas, and devote a week 
in a systematic hunt. 

I made my plans with great forethought as to 
details. In July and August the season would 
be cool and dry, when I could hunt with less dis- 
comfort from possible rains; no flooded low 
grounds. A large proportion of the forest leaves 
fall in the Dry Season, leaving the thickets less 
dense, and giving better chance for spying ani- 
mals. There were scarcely any gorillas in the 
hilly Talaguga region where I was then living. 
I had known of but two being killed during the 
eight years I had been there. So I closed my 
house, taking with me my little daughter and her 
native nurse, not knowing how soon I should re- 
turn, and went down river seventy miles to my 



GORILLA-HUNTING 1 1 9 

former Kangwe Station, which was then occupied 
by a Mr. Gacon, a lay missionary. Here I chose 
a good crew of eight young men. Dr. Morton's 
carboy of chloride of zinc had been carefully 
kept during all the previous eight years. I took a 
jugful of it. Not to waste my alcohol (In which 
was to be immersed the expected gorilla brain for 
transmission to America) I took along several 
gallons of rum. Proper receptacles were taken 
for receiving the brains. I took my slxteen-re- 
peater Winchester rifle, and a double-barreled 
gun (suitable for either shot or bullet), and in- 
vited with me Mr. Gacon, who had been a Swiss 
sharpshooter, and who had the latest army breech- 
loading rifle. For the native hunters, I took two 
of the best (very poor at best) flint-lock muskets 
from an adjacent Trading-house; goods for two 
weeks, as payment for native assistants, etc. 
From the Andende house of Kangwe* Station, in 
my six-oared boat, we all went about fifteen miles 
down river to the village of a friend, Aveya. 
There we ate our noon meal. Hiring a man to 
guide us among the hundreds of islands of Lakes 
Onange and Ogemwe, we resumed journey in the 
afternoon and entered Lake Onanga. The 
islands were all covered with heavy forests grow- 
ing out of volcanic rocks red with iron. The 



120 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Lake is very deep in places, and most of the ap- 
proaches to the islands rocky and unsafe. We 
found an island protected with a cove and smooth 
sandy beach. There we pitched our tents, and 
took our supper. The island was small and un- 
inhabited. No wild animals; perhaps snakes. 
Startled at our camp-fire, the hippopotami snorted 
in their lake shallows. But we were safe. They 
attack in the water only when wounded, or while 
in charge of their young. They never leave the 
water to attack ashore. Next day, Wednesday, 
July 17th, we rose early, and moved on to another 
island that was inhabited; and by 9 A. M.^ were 
comfortably lodged in the hut of another friend, 
Okendo, in Lake Ogemwe. After the noon meal, 
Mr. Gacon impatiently went out hunting with 
one of my men, Ogula. They returned, having 
seen signs of gorillas, but not the animals them- 
selves. A council was held in the evening with 
the villagers, as to time, routes, and the art of 
hunting gorillas. Some two or three old men and 
half a dozen young ones, whom I did not know, 
voluntarily attached themselves to our party, evi- 
dently for gain, and eventually I forbade them 
following us; for they hampered us. Everybody 
was sure I should not be in the village four days 
without succeeding in my search. They told won- 



GORILLA-HUNTING 1 2 1 

derfulstories of the numbers and audacity of the 
gorillas ; that not two days passed but that some- 
body saw them in the gardens. As the garden 
work is done principally by women, it was they 
who most frequently saw them, actually meeting 
them in the paths, and sometimes being pursued 
by males. From all their accounts, the gorilla 
is full of the arts and tricks of the monkey tribe; 
especially quick in reading faces. Women being 
unarmed and afraid, the animals were more dar- 
ing to them than to man. But they all said that 
we white people could have no chance of getting 
near; that the animals would detect our strange 
odor, and would fear our white color. Yet they 
hoped we would kill many; for their gardens 
were devastated by gorillas, pigs, oxen and ele- 
phants. Most of the men said that, though they 
often saw these animals, they were afraid to shoot 
with their flint-locks that often uncertainly flashed 
in the pan, or whose slug-shots were not imme- 
diately fatal; that then they were at the mercy 
of the wounded beasts. They advised us, if we 
met with a male who dared to face us, not to fire 
until only a few yards distant; and, even then, 
not to aim at the head; for, the animals had the 
art (being acquainted with guns, and all having 
informed each other, as the natives believed) of 



122 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

ducking down the head at the click of the trigger. 
We were to aim at the abdomen, which from its 
size could not fail to be injured, and the head or 
chest would probably be pierced by the animal's 
having brought it in line with a shot aimed, as it 
had supposed, at its head. (This might be good 
advice for a slowly-exploding native trade gun, 
but not for a quick-firing rifle.) 

Early the next day, July i8th, we all went, 
some fourteen men and eight dogs, in the boat 
to another large island, arriving there shortly 
after sunrise. My own crew of six were afraid; 
so I left them in the boat, and Ogula described 
to them the lay of the land, so that they might 
follow around to another side of the island where 
we would probably emerge. The rest of us en- 
tered the thicket. It was very dense ; it grows up 
so wherever there are abandoned plantations. 
The original forest is easily threaded; for the 
dense foliage of the tall trees kills out by its 
shade the underbrush. But gorillas are looked 
for mostly in the plantations, old and new. Yet, 
after four hours of search, we saw or heard 
nothing, except that we came upon the tracks of 
wild hogs. And we returned tired to our dinner 
in the village. In the afternoon, Okendo, whose 
wife's plantation was on another part of the island 



GORILLA-HUNTING 123 

at which we had been in the morning, came in 
frantic haste saying that a gorilla was just then 
seen by her. We went. Sure enough, there were 
the pieces of sugar-cane the beast had chewed and 
spat from its mouth, still wet with spittle ; and the 
broken branches of the cassava (manioc) plants 
marked its exit from the garden. Following the 
trail, we divided into three companies. I was in 
the center with a friend, Osamwamani. Mr. 
Gacon went to the right with Ogula. Ogula was 
the only one who actually saw the gorilla, a fe- 
male; but it disappeared before he could draw 
his gun on it. This stimulated our plans that 
night for the next day's work. The next day, Fri- 
day the 19th, Mr. Gacon started in a canoe with 
three men at 5 A. M., and I followed an hour later 
in the boat with my crew of six, and only four 
other men. Landing, I left the crew in the boat 
to follow us, as on the previous day. Mr. Gacon 
joining us, we went in the general direction of 
the previous afternoon. There were frequent 
and fresh signs; even of dung still warm. The 
thicket was impossible to be passed by a human 
being in any other than the too noisy way of cut- 
ting with the long knives we carried, or by crawl- 
ing under the mass. This mass was of vines, 
bushes, and (worst of all) a grass with stems 



124 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

growing many yards in length, whose long, nar- 
row leaves were, on their edges, as sharp as 
knives. The density of this entire growth above 
killed out the leaves and twigs lower down; and 
there the thicket was tunneled with many pas- 
sages, intersecting and opening out into spaces 
of a square rod or two where might be a clump 
of trees and where the animals had their sleep- 
ing-places beneath the lower branches. Of course, 
even if a gorilla was heard or sighted in such a 
thicket while we were crawling, it could get away 
before we could snatch our guns into position; 
and, if the animal should only be wounded, we 
would be in a very ugly place for defending our- 
selves. 

The trail became so hot we were sure the ani- 
mal was near. We divided, Mr. Gacon at one 
side, Ogula at another, and I with Osam-wa-mani 
at a third. I had sent back all the other men, and 
allowed only one dog, Ogula's Hector. (The 
too large company of the previous day had been 
too noisy.) 

Suddenly we heard Hector barking sharply; 
and shortly afterward the screams of a baby go- 
rilla. The noises seemed to be not more than 
forty or fifty feet from us in the center of the 
thicket. But we could see nothing. The barking 



GORILLA-HUNTING 125 

became more savage, the screams more agonized, 
and, as we tore our way under the bushes, there 
was added to them the angry howl of a parent 
gorilla. Every one of us took his own way, los- 
ing sight of each other, following the sounds 
along our several tunnels, the radii to the fierce 
center. But the bark ceased with a yelp; the 
screams and howls receded faster than I could 
follow in my creeping on hands and knees. 
I emerged into a small open glade where stood 
Ogula and Mr. Gacon with Hector. The dog 
had come upon a mother and child at the foot of 
a tree in a hollow which was still warm. The 
mother probably had fled at first sight, but evi- 
dently had returned at the scream of the child, 
which the dog had seized. It was just at this 
moment Ogula had seen them. The mother 
slapped the dog with her hand, and he dropped 
the child with a yelp of pain. Ogula allowed the 
precious opportunity to pass, fearing to kill his 
dog with the scattered slugs of his musket. Mr. 
Gacon was in his rear, and emerged on the scene 
just as the mother, who had picked up her child, 
disappeared through another tunnel. He had 
not a moment's time to get his rifle into posi- 
tion. 

On our way back to the boat we came to a large 



126 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

grassy glade, where evidently there must have 
slept that very night not less than twenty gorillas. 
The impressions of their bodies in the soft grass 
were distinct, and some spots still warm. It was 
exasperating that we had been only a few hun- 
dred yards from that spot the previous afternoon, 
and had passed it that very morning. All our 
hands and faces were cut and bleeding by the fear- 
ful grass in that frantic rush; and I had hurt my 
knee by a fall over a log. So, we rested and 
mended ourselves during the afternoon in the 
village. 

On Saturday, the 20th, we all arose at 3 A. M., 
and, volunteers and all, went to a new place, 
where, on the previous afternoon, a large male 
gorilla had been reported. I did not like the plan. 
I wanted to go to the region of the previous day's 
hunt. But Ogula was overpersuaded by the vol- 
unteers. Their plan was to form a line across 
the long point of land on which the animal had 
been heard on the previous afternoon. We en- 
tered the forest in the dark of the morning. I 
was not accustomed to such exhausting work be- 
fore breakfast. And when, after a long and 
fruitless search, I emerged faint and weak, I was 
provoked to find that the three old volunteers had 
changed their minds, had not followed us, and 



GORILLA-HUNTING 127 

were resting comfortably on the sandy beach 
munching peanuts. 

On Monday, the 22nd, I was still lame with 
my knee. Mr. Gacon, with the hunters, went out 
to a new. place, where the natives had heard of a 
gorilla on Sunday. But he returned fruitless, ex- 
cept that he had shot a flying squirrel. He went 
out again in the afternoon alone, but found noth- 
ing. 

On Tuesday, the 23rd, Ogula and Osam-wa- 
mani, ashamed over our ill success, had declared 
that I should have a gorilla that very day. For 
that purpose, they went without us before day- 
light to a distant place. They returned in the 
evening stating that they had seen many gorillas, 
some of which had taken refuge in high treetops 
beyond the range of their muskets. They 
regretted not having taken us along. We 
gave up the search for a gorilla. My knee 
was still inflamed; and Mr. Gacon's enthu- 
siasm had waned. We could not deny that 
there were gorillas in abundance, but the diffi- 
culties in obtaining them were just as ob- 
vious. 

During all those years, from 1882 to 1889, 
while I was prevented from hunting by my work 
at Talaguga, I had employed a Galwa hunter, 



128 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Azaze, living at Ngomu about thirty-five or forty 
miles down river from my former residence, 
Kangwe. I promised him a good reward if he 
brought me a dead gorilla in good condition. To 
get it in good condition to Kangwe, he would have 
to start immediately, and pull up stream day and 
night. I relied on some one at Kangwe to receive 
the carcass for me. Azaze had brought two car- 
casses there during those years, and while I was 
at Talaguga, and they were lost; for there was 
no one at Kangwe who could open a skull care- 
fully. In 1888 he sent a third, a small one. I 
happened to be on a visit at Kangwe at the time. 
It reached me just as I was starting on return 
to Talaguga. I had actually stepped into the 
boat, and in a few minutes would have started. 
The messenger had arrived during the night, but 
had taken his leisure to deliver it. I was willing 
to delay my journey for the sake of the brain, but 
the carcass was even then spoiled. And what I 
would have given a large sum for twenty-four 
hours earlier I threw into the river as worth 
nothing. Azaze's last effort was over a very 
large old male, in July, 1889, only a week before 
I started to the Lake on my own hunt. He made 
a desperate effort to bring it in good con- 
dition. He arrived on a Sunday, and when I 



GORILLA-HUNTING 129 

set to work on the brain early Monday morning, 
it had already softened. 

In July of 1890 I again closed my Talaguga 
house, and went with my family, on the yearly 
vacation, to the same Lake as in 1889. But I 
went to a different place, without any retinue, and 
with no white associate. At the village, I hired 
two hunters of the Akele tribe. In two days' 
hunting they saw both elephants and gorillas, but 
failed to kill any. But some young men of the 
Galwa tribe, knowing my errand, went out on 
their own account, and found five gorillas, an old 
male, a young male, and three females. The 
spot was in sight and gun-sound of the village 
where I was awaiting miy own men, across one 
of the beautiful bays of the Lake. The females 
fled, the old male showed some fight, but fled 
when the young one was shot. The carcass was 
brought to me still warm. I was shaking with an 
ague chill; but I commenced on the skull, though 
I had only a carpenter's buck-saw and chisel. I 
worked with care; but, in my nervous anxiety, I 
gave an unfortunate blow or two, and wounded 
the brain; and much of the brain matter exuded, 
though I tried to astringe it with the chloride of 
zinc. Also I had no alcohol, and had to use 
trade rum. And it did not keep the tissues from 



130 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

decay. But a few days later, on returning from 
the Lake to Kangwe, in passing a Fang town on 
the river, by a very, very rare good fortune, I 
chanced to be offered for sale two male gorilla 
children. They were in good condition and 
tamed. Leaving them at Kangwe in the care of 
a servant, I went away on a few days' errand. 
During my absence he neglected them, and they 
were attacked by "Driver" ants the night of the 
day before my return. Their cries of agony had 
been disregarded, and when I arrived they could 
only moan. I combed thousands of ants off of 
them. For hours the ants had been biting them, 
and had filled their eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth, 
and covered their entire bodies. They were dy- 
ing with the torture. One died in twelve hours; 
the other survived two days. That servant had 
also neglected to feed them, and they were starved 
before the ants attacked them. Promptly on its 
death, I placed the brain in the chloride. The 
second one was still living when I started the next 
day up river to my Talaguga home, seventy miles, 
a four days' journey against the current. At 
night of the first day in camp on a sand-bar I saw 
it was dying. I put it out of misery, and worked 
on the brain at midnight by torch-light. I worked 
very carefully with only a chisel, using no mallet. 



GORILLA-HUNTING 131 

and loosened the brain without injuring the mem- 
branes. I took off the top of the skull. Being 
afraid to work down toward the base of the brain, 
I left it and the cerebellum with a portion of the 
spinal cord in situ; and sawed away the face and 
jaws so as to make the mass small enough to 
enter the jar. I inclosed it and also its mate in 
separate muslin bags, so that they should not 
abrade each other. On arrival at my house three 
days later, I decanted the chloride of zinc and sub- 
stituted rum, and subsequently alcohol. 

This jar I carefully carried with me on my fur- 
lough to America in May, 1891, and gave the pre- 
cious contents to Dr. Morton. He placed them 
in the hands of Dr. Chapman for microscopic 
examination. They were the first perfect gorilla 
brains which had been examined by a scientist. 
An imperfect one had previously been examined 
in England, and another in Germany. At a meet- 
ing of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 
Sciences, January 26, 1892, at which I was pres- 
ent by invitation. Dr. Chapman made his report. 
The Journal Science, of date April 29th, 1892, 
stated that, "At a recent meeting of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Pa., Dr. 
Henry C. Chapman described three gorilla brains 
collected by the Rev. R. H. Nassau, D.D., In 



132 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

1890, upon the Ogowe River, Southwest Africa. 
The brains have been presented by him, through 
Dr. Thomas G. Morton, to the Academy. Dr. 
Chapman's observations upon these brains are 
embodied in a paper now in the course of publi- 
cation in the Academy's Proceedings. At the 
close of Dr. Chapman's communication. Dr. Nas- 
sau related his experiences when obtaining the 
brains.'* 

My address, on that occasion, included the de- 
scription of the gorilla and its habitat as written 
in the first part of this story. 



VII 

Uvengwa: a Vampire 

I. Two Facts 
(i) Ponji's Wife 

An Uvengwa Is believed, in native African 
superstition, to be a self-resurrected dead body, 
with or without its "spirit," but animated by at 
least one of its other three immaterial entities, its 
"animal life." It Is tangible; differing, in that 
respect, from the universally believed-in Ghost, 
or disembodied spirit. Its resurrected form is 
variously supposed to have some physical changes 
in the shape of the hands and feet. 

At Batanga there was a woman named Mwa- 
dakuku (a very common name), wife of a man, 
PonjI. She was of the Bapuku tribe; one of the 
two tribes dwelling on the Batanga Beach. She 
died about 1890. Her husband buried her, as 
was then the custom, in the clay floor of his house. 
The woman in dying had left a little child about 

133 



134 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

two years old. It died a few weeks later. Peo- 
ple said that the mother, in love for her child, 
had come back from the other world and had 
killed the child, in order to take it with her. After 
this, it was said that she began to follow her hus- 
band. Himself believed that that was true, for 
he said he felt her hands on his arms in his bed. 
So he left that house, and went to sleep in an- 
other house. But, there also, the state of affairs 
was just the same. He asserted, "My wife lays 
hold of my body." 

Three months thus passed in dread and confu- 
sion. And in the fourth month, people said, "If 
this continues, the man will die." So, they called 
a dozen strong men to dig up the coffin. They did 
so in that fourth month. After they had lifted 
out the coffin, they looked into it, and found that 
the body was not decayed, except that the teeth 
had darkened. They took the body out of the 
coffin, and called all the people, "Come! see what 
an Uvengwa is like." 

They poured kerosene over the corpse, and 
then placed it in a small canoe. Then they put 
fire to the body; but it would not burn. So they 
decided that there was some witchcraft about this 
matter. They took the canoe with the body to a 
rock in the sea, a very short distance from the 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 135 

shore, used as a burning-place for witches and 
wizards. There they again tried to burn the 
body and failed. So they left it there exposed 
on the rocks. Goats, at low tide, played on that 
rock. They ate of the dead flesh, and they died. 
People there eat animals that have died of wounds 
or even disease. But these dead goats were not 
eaten; they were thrown into the sea. 

Only two months later, the man also died. All 
the people were sure that his wife had enticed him 
away. 

(2) Joha's Wife 

The wife of Joba, a certain church-member, 
died in the Hospital at Batanga Beach, about 
1898, and was buried. 

After the burial, people were alarmed at night 
by their doors being shaken in sudden and strange 
ways. Food was missed from their houses, and 
was found at the grave. They said it was the, 
dead woman that came into their houses to get 
the food. 

So they said to Joba, "Your wife vengwak- 
andi," (is ghost-walking). But Joba did not be- 
lieve it, and told the people that it was false. 
Shortly after the burial, the Doctor had called 
Joba to come and take out from the hospital the 



136 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

bed on which his wife had died, to be washed, 
as the hospital servants, for some reason, refused 
to touch it. Joba did so ; and when he came back 
to his village, people felt sure that their suspi- 
cions were correct; and they asked him, "If it be 
not that your wife is an Uvengwa, why has the 
Doctor told you to remove the bed?" But Joba 
still did not believe them, and would not allow the 
corpse to be disinterred. 

He married again; and this wife gradually 
lost her good health. Finally, in 1905, she said 
to people that it was that dead first wife who was 
making her sick, and a demand was made that the 
corpse should be exhumed and cremated. Be- 
cause Joba would not consent to this, the woman 
left him. 

2. Two Fictions 

( I ) Ikedede 

Njambu built a town, and married women. 
They conceived; and there were ten births, all of 
them males. In the course of time, they grew 
to be stout young men. Then, one day, they said, 
"Come ye! to make snares." They went to the 
forest, and when the snares were finished, they 
went back together to town. 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 137 

The next morning they called each other to- 
gether, saying, "Come ye! to look at our snares." 
They went. On the path they discovered a jomba 
(cooked meat tied In a bundle of plantain leaves) 
set, with two mevanda (cooked cassava rolls). 
Some said, "Let us eat." But others said, "No!" 
One of their number, Ikedede, coming after them, 
discovered the food standing there. He said, 
"I'm a-goIng to eat!" The others said, "Do not 
eat!" (They suspected It to be of witch origin.) 
Said he, "I eat It. Shall food be left In the path, 
and there Is one who Is hungry, and shall he not 
eat?" So, he sat down at the food, and ate, and 
finished. They came to their snares. There were 
many bush-rats. They took them, and said "Come 
on!" When they reached the town, they spread 
the news concerning that jomba, before their 
father and mothers. (Eating food prepared 
by a woman not one's wife Is a sign of court- 
ship.) 

The next day they went again to the forest, 
discovering another jomba and also two mevanda. 
Ikedede also sat down by the food. The others 
said, "Do not eat again!" Said he, "I have eaten 
it." They brought also many rats from their 
snares. When they arrived at the town, they In- 
formed their father and mothers, saying of Ike- 



138 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

dede, "This fellow is worthy to die; he is not a 
proper person." (The sweetheart woman being 
suspected as a witch.) 

Another day broke. They went away together 
as usual; they came to the place, and discovered 
the food as before. Ikedede also knelt down for 
eating; he ate, and he ate, and he finished. They 
came upon many rats, and they went back to town. 
They again related that affair to their father and 
mothers. When the day was darkened, Ikedede 
spoke to his brothers, saying, "If I tell you about 
this affair, will you believe?" They said, "Why 
not?" He said, "Now, let us sleep this day in 
the public Reception-house, all of us in the middle 
of the floor; I below, and you all on top of me." 
They slept as he had directed them. Then, at 
midnight Mwada-mekuku (a spirit-woman; a 
buried person who has arisen from the grave as 
a vampire; in native tongue, an Uvengwa), 
standing at the rear end of the town, was calling, 
"Ikedede— 1 Ikedede— O !" He answered, "E ! 
e ! E ! e 1" And she, "Where are you ?" And he, 
"I am here in the Reception-house." Mwada- 
mekuku entered the room, saying, "Where are 
you?" "I am at the bottom, all the other nine 
on top of me." So the woman moved them all 
(without their being conscious), and she spoke to 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 139 

Ikedede, saying, "Give me your hand!" He ex- 
tended it; and she cut off his arm. 

That same night, he aroused his brothers. 
They arose together, and he said, "Make a fire 
on the hearth. Is it possible you are not real peo- 
ple!" They lighted the fire-place, and, behold! 
there was his arm with a piece cut off ! 

At once, they called their father, and all the 
town came to an assembly. The father said to 
him, "You, child! I have told you about this 
wilfulness of yours. The other children have 
rebuked you; but you do not listen to them." 
The day broke. And when the evening sun came, 
Ikedede called his brothers, and said, "To-day, 
you place me under the bedstead, and you on 
top." The day darkened. They did as he had 
directed. That woman came at night, and called, 
and called, "Ikedede! O-o-o !" And he, "E ! e!" 
And she, "Where are you?" And he, "I am 
under the bedstead." She came and removed 
the other children (without their knowing). She 
said to him, "Stretch out your hand!" He 
stretched it out; and she cut it off. 

Ikedede aroused his brothers; they lighted the 
fire-place. When they looked, the other arm 
was off. The towns-people came and wondered. 

The next day early, the tribe was called to- 



140 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

gether, and they said to Njambu, "Go away from 
this town. The death of a person is not a thing 
to be endured." (They assumed that Ikedede 
would die.) 

On another day, when night came, a leg was 
cut off. And on another, the same happened, 
leaving Ikedede with only a limbless body. Then 
the father said, "I will migrate." He said to 
his women, "Carry your things, for the journey." 
The mother of Ikedede, said, "Must we leave 
him?" His father said, "Well, if you can carry 
him, do you carry; but not I." The mother, in 
pity, put him in her basket, and, with it on her 
back, carried him on the journey. The Spirit- 
woman took her machete, and followed. Then, 
the mother looked behind; and there was the 
woman rushing just like a boat before the wind, 
and crying out, "Ikedede! O! e-e!" The mother 
went rapidly, but that woman was getting nearer, 
and the mother exclaimed, "What is this?" As 
the woman came nearer and nearer, the mother 
put him down, and ran away in fear. That 
woman stood by Ikedede, and said to him, "You! 
you love me; and I love you, and I want you to 
go with me." Ikedede said to her, "How can I 
walk, when I have no legs?" She said, "Wel- 
come ! Now then, Come ! I am without any one 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 141 

at the town. And you ! would you say that you 
will desert me?" The woman carried him, lift- 
ing him on her back, and, taking him off to the 
town, laid him down. She brought out all his 
limbs, saying, ''Are not these they?" She re- 
turned them all to him. Then they went and ar- 
rived at their own spirit-town, they two, and re- 
mained there. 

It was this spirit-woman who loved Ikedede; 
who had set the love-philtered food in the path 
for him, to cause him to love her; who tried to 
kill him in order to make him go with her to the 
spirit-world, and with whom he finally went there. 

( 2 ) A^)' a ngwa-Nk wa ti 

Njambu built a town. He married wives, and 
he begat numerous sons and daughters. There 
they were living; they built; they hewed the for- 
est; they planted; they ate the fruits; they fished; 
they killed, and they ate the meats. Then one of 
his sons wished for marriage. And he came to 
the town of Njambu-ya-Mekadi, and he said to 
him, "I have come to marry your child." The 
father replied, "Yes, I am willing." But while 
the young man was there, it happened that Ny- 
angwa-Nkwati, one of the wives of his father, 



142 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

died. So, he took his bride, and arose for the 
journey to go back to the town of his father. 
He went on, on, on, on, in his journey, clear to 
the town of his father, with this daughter-in-law. 
The towns-people went out to welcome them, 
"Hail ! hail ! hail ! Welcome ! welcome, to the 
one who comes! Welcome!" from young and 
old. 

They recounted to him the news of the town; 
and he also to them the news of the journey, in 
full. In the evening, the father, standing up in 
the street, announced, "To-morrow we go for a 
trapping." 

By day-break, the nets were prepared, with 
every man and woman to go, leaving only the 
daughter-in-law alone in the town. 

When the trappers were gone, she was listen- 
ing, and she heard a song as it was coming from 
the other end of the town. 

"Nyangwa-Nkwati ! A ya ! 

'Kwati, a ya ! 'Kwati, a ya ! 'Kwati, a ya!" 

Suddenly there was a rush of a female being 
into the house; a machete (cutlass) was extended; 
it fell on the woman's head with a gash. And 
she lay a corpse. The other woman cut her all 
in pieces, and carried them away to the graves. 

The trappers began to arrive. The husband 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 143 

also came. On his entering into the house, and 
looking around, there was no wife there nor 
any signs of her. And he wept for his wife. 

By day-light, next morning, he promptly rose 
up to go to the town of his father-in-law. When 
he arrived there, they said to him, "Wherefore 
do you come with mourning?" He replied, "Ah! 
brothers, I do not know the thing that has killed 
me my wife." The father-in-law said to him, 
"I told you that you should take care of my 
child." But at once he give him another wife 
(on the native ground that, during the too short 
life of the other woman, he had not received the 
worth of the dowry-goods he had paid for her) . 

The young man returned with her to his own 
town. He entered with her into their house. 
And she bore a son. 

Again the young man's father stood up out in 
the street, and said, "To-morrow O ! To-morrow 
O ! For trapping, O ! Let no one remain away 
from it!" 

When the day began to break, the towns-people 
prepared the nets, and went to the forest. This 
woman, who had just given birth to her child, and 
the infant, were left alone. That dead woman, 
Nyangwa-Nkwati, up-rising from her grave, 
came again with an excited song, 



144 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

"Nyangwa-Kwati ! A ya, Kwati! Ay a, Kwatil 

Nyangwa-Kwati ! A ya, Kwati!" 

Rushing into the room she tried to seize the 
mother, who, dropping her infant, rapidly ran 
off to a hiding place, and thrust herself into it. 
But the infant, with magic strength, stood up and 
wounded that woman, who had risen from the 
dead, with the hard end of a piece of sugar-cane. 
She also fell a corpse, lying stretched out and 
swollen in the street. The towns-people came 
and found the infant alone and crying with hun- 
ger, in the house, "Ne! ne ! ne! la! la!" Said 
they, "But where is the mother?" Presently she 
emerged from her hiding-place, and came and 
took the child, and gave it the breast. And 
the people took that corpse and they burned it, 
thrusting it in a furnace of fire. She was 
consumed, being entirely burned (as was the cus- 
tom, to prevent her restless risings from her 
grave). 

The child grew, and became a man full-grown. 
One day he said to his mother, "Pound for me 
mekima (rolls of mashed plantains), I am going 
on a journey to seek a marriage." So the mother 
made for him the mekima. He started on his 
journey, going on, on, on, on, until on the way 
he met two Ngangala (Millepedes) fighting. 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 145 

He separated them; and giving them an ukima 
roll, he passed on. 

Before him again, he met two Mwamba 
(snakes) fighting. He separated also them and 
gave them an ukima. And passed on before, on, 
on, on, until he came to a spring. There he found 
a town built on an ascent, and two maidens were 
coming down to dip up water from that spring. 
They said to him, "Such a fine young man as this ! 
Whence do you come?" Said he to the maidens, 
"Whose town is this?" They replied, "The town 
of our father." 

They left him and went at once back quickly to 
town. They said to the other maidens, "Come! 
Isn't this a handsome man who is at the spring?" 
Said the others, "By the truth?" They replied, 
"In very truth!" They all went with speed to- 
gether until they came to the spring. Arrived 
there, they at first were utterly silent and abashed 
with surprise. Then they said among themselves, 
"The young man is fine!" Finally they said to 
him, "What is your name?" Said he, "I am 
Saluke-na-Dibadi." They said to him, "Come to 
the town." He answered, "Yes; come on!" 
While they were looking at him, he disappeared 
from their sight; and at once he was up in the 
town. They wondered together, saying, "Who 



146 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Is he?" When they arrived at the town, they 
found that he was there sitting in the town. And 
again they wondered among themselves. 

The towns-people were saying, "The man is 
fine looking!" The Chief of the town said to 
him, "Whence do you come?" He replied, "I 
have come from my father's town to seek mar- 
riage in your town." The Chief said, "Yes; 
good; you are finding women here." He called 
his wives, and said to them, "Cook food!" They 
cooked, and brought the food to the house 
where was the expecting son-in-law, and he ate. 
Soon then, the Chief called his daughters, and he 
said to him, "Choose of them whom you shall 
like." He chose Eyale, daughter of Ngwelege. 
And the Chief said, "Good!" 

But the towns-people had secretly said, "Let 
him be eaten." (Cannibals killed and ate 
strangers.) However, Saluke-na-Dibadi had all 
this time overheard them. They had said also, 
"Not to-day, but to-morrow." 

That day darkened into night. While the peo- 
ple were all in sleep, Saluke-na-Dibadi com- 
manded, "Ngalo ! produce an invisible en- 
closure!" (Ngalo is a powerful charm, accom- 
panied by a spirit as a personal guardian.) The 
fence appeared at once; and he fastened it around 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 147 

the entire tribe, the towns-people knowing noth- 
ing of it. 

At daylight in the morning, the towns-people 
said, in their haste to eat him, "What else is to 
be waited for?" They sent two small children, 
saying, "Call ye him." These went very quickly; 
and they too, looking with joy to the expected 
cannibal feast, said to each other on the way, 
"We shall eat entrails (considered choice parts) 
to-day. Chum! Eh! Eh!" When they came to 
him, they deceitfully said to him, "Brother-in- 
law, we have come to call you. Our father calls 
you." Eyale (who knew what was going on) 
was crying. Her husband asked her, saying, 
"Wherefore do you weep?" She was afraid to 
reveal the plans of her people, and said she was 
not crying at anything. So her husband said to 
her, "Don't weep any more." 

Presently some of the young men came to him, 
saying, "You are wanted in the Reception-house; 
our father wishes to speak with you." To gain 
time, he excused himself, replying, "I am lying 
down." At this those young men became very 
angry. They said to the others, "Come! what 
are we waiting for?" Still the wife continued her 
weeping. The man then at once stepped out in 
the street and took his stand before them all. He 



148 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

called, ''Ngalo", and It placed in his hand a long 
knife. The people shouted at him, ^'We've come!" 
He shouted back, "I've come too !" And he took 
up a song to embolden himself. 

"Saluke-na-Dibadi ! Menjanjako! Menjako! 
Saluke-na-Dibadi ! Menjanjako ! Menjako ! 
Saluke-na-Dibadi ! Menjanjako! Menjako!" 

As he advanced upon the crowd, his strokes 
fell on them, then a dead body down before him. 
Another dead body down! A head cut off! 
A head down! Another head cut off! Another 
head off! 

All the towns-people of that clan being cut 
off (being unable to escape through the inclosing 
fence), he cast the bodies of the entire clan in a 
fire and burned them. The ashes he swallowed 
Into his stomach (as a witchcraft medicine). 
Catching up his wife, he went away; on the jour- 
ney killing other clans, including all of that tribe, 
and destroying all their towns. 

He and his wife then settled down in a new 
place. They built houses ; they cleared the forest 
for a plantation; they planted, and they increased 
with many children. And he was honored in his 
vengeance. 



UVENGWA: A VAMPIRE 149 

Saluke-na-Dibadi, even when he was an infant, 
thus avenged his father's first wife, who was 
killed by Nyangwa-Nkwati, who was jealous of 
her. 



VIII 

A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 

Note : — ^In native African belief, our Human Personality consists 
of four entities: i. The physical body. 2. Its attendant material 
"heart-life," separate from it, but dying shortly after the body 
dies. 3. A "dream-soul," capable of issuing from the body at night 
and enjoying itself in wild wanderings, but under the limitation that 
it must return before daylight. 4. An immortal soul that lives in 
the Land of Spirits. 

Slave Boyadi lay at night in an ecstasy. The 
unreal world, Into which his being was so thor- 
oughly lifting itself, was to him the real. Of the 
actually real he was apparently unconscious. Had 
you asked him, and could he have answered, he 
would not have recognized or acknowledged his 
surroundings. The small hut of an African 
slave; the little sleeping-room not eight feet 
square ; the rough bark walls ; the roof of bamboo- 
palm leaf thatch, so low that, standing erect, one 
could reach one's hand to the ridgepole; the low 
bed-frame made of two longitudinal poles rest- 
ing on four crotched sticks as corners, and on 

150 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 151 

these laterally, the width of the frame, smooth 
palm-fronds, their inequalities leveled and some- 
what softened by a mat or two of woven pandanus 
leaves. The walls were bare, save that, in the 
narrow interstices made by the horizontal splits 
of bamboo to which were tied the bark strips 
covering the sapling framework of the hut, were 
stuck a few implements ; a dagger, a weapon with 
blade some eighteen inches long and of double 
edge, employed for defense, and also for a score 
of daily uses in cutting branches from the path, 
vines in the forest, and weeds in the plantation 
farm; native-made clay pipe; tobacco pouch; 
hunting bag; a few yards of well-worn foreign 
print cloth; skins of monkeys, and of civet and 
other "bush" cats. 

On the floor was an earthen jar of water. 
Leaning in a corner, a spear and a flint-lock 
"trade" gun. Elevated on some stones, above 
the easy approach of destructive white-ants that 
dwelt in the dampness and darkness of the clay 
floor, a chest or two of foreign-made boards con- 
taining the slave's little wealth of foreign trade- 
goods, a few beads, mirrors and other trinkets, 
some yards of new calico prints and shirting. 
Hidden among them, most precious of all, his 
amulet-charms of defense for protecting his own 



152 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

life and furthering his own plans and enterprises, 
and of offense, for frustrating those of whom he 
was jealous, and destroying those whom he hated. 
Had you seen Boyadi a few hours before, you 
would have observed no signs of ecstasy. Only 
the daylight sharply defined realities of his daily 
work and slave condition. That work was not in 
itself so hard as to be felt oppressive. Had it 
been so, he would have run away. Not back to 
the Interior, to his own far-distant tribe, for there 
he was a criminal; his own tribe had sold him, 
slavery commuting a death penalty. Nor to any 
of the other interior tribes, for they were canni- 
bal, and he would probably, as a waif, have soon 
been the subject of a cannibal feast. But to any 
of the coast-wise adjacent more civilized tribes; 
for there his life was safe, though he would still 
be a slave, property of the first one who should 
find him. The only difference in his life would be 
an exchange of masters, and perhaps for the 
worse. His present owner was not severe. Given 
that Boyadi helped tie bamboo when a house was 
being built, or that he was on hand to paddle his 
master's canoe, or carry his gun and other im- 
pedimenta on a journey, or respond to the capri- 
cious call of that master's chief-wife in her kitchen 
work; or, twice a year to do the heavy part of 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 153 

felling forest for a new plantation, he was left 
much to his own devices : to cultivate his own little 
garden, to idle with the other idlers, free and 
slave, to whom idling was the chief of life's oc- 
cupations, to sit in the public Reception-house 
smoking, with the other smokers, the raw native- 
grown tobacco, to listen to the narratives of the 
various travelers who came either expressly to visit 
his chief, or who stopped at that chief's village on 
their journey to more distant places. And at 
night he was at liberty to find comfort, that made 
him forget the discomforts or objurgations of the 
day, in the society and dances of fellow-slaves. 
Some of those dances were simple and unmean- 
ing: held in his master's village for recreation 
and the rhythm of motion; accompanied by the 
regular time-beat of the ngama-drum, and par- 
ticipated in by slave and free. 

Other of these dances were religious, at the new 
moon, or at the installation of some new great 
charm. Others were diabolical and secret; were 
attended in lonely places, at appointed midnight 
hours, only by a Fraternity in the slave com- 
munity, where intercourse with spirits was be- 
lieved in and practiced, and whose understood 
purpose was to undermine the lives of their 
enemies. 



154 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Though Boyadi had so little to complain of in 
the manner with which he was treated physically 
by his owner and the other freemen of the vil- 
lage, it was his position as a slave that rankled 
in his heart. Always to be at another's will. 
However much he did, or however well he did it, 
his horizon was still only that of a slave. Good 
service and a moderately kind master might 
widen that horizon but it was still only a slave's. 
And always, on the edge of that horizon, hung 
the possibility of a wizard's death. It was not 
claimed in native thought that this earthly life 
was endless. But, practically, whenever death 
entered the village and took away a freeman's life, 
the claim was that he had died "before his time"; 
suspicion said, through witchcraft machinations; 
and suspicion almost always located itself on the 
slave community, for the reason that it was known 
that slaves did practice the Black Art, and partly 
because it was safer to make an accusation against 
a defenseless slave than against a freeman. 

It resulted therefore that, just because they were 
defenseless, the slaves actually did practice arts 
in their supposed self-defense, that gave justifica- 
tion for the charge that they were witches and 
wizards. Some of their secret witchcraft orgies 
were only for the sake of the enjoyment of a Del- 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 155 

phic frenzy, In which they really believed they 
had converse with and information from wild 
spiritual beings. In others, there was a reckless 
practice of this thought: If we are some day to be 
charged as causes of a death of which we are 
innocent, let us at least have the satisfaction of 
revenge in advance, of working away the life of 
some of the men and women who do make our 
lives hard. Well-known poisons placed in an 
enemy's food could promptly have served their 
revenge; but it was hazardous: proof of guilt 
could too readily be accumulated. 

So, that day, Boyadi, in going about the village, 
and in strolling on plausible errands to other vil- 
lages, had muttered cabalistic words, or made a 
fraternity sign to chosen fellow-slaves, male and 
female, directing them to meet that night at a 
known place in the forest, for a Witches' Sab- 
bath, with intimation of a ''Feast." In the glare 
of day, their first and most prominent thought 
was the sense of freedom involved in the midnight 
excursion, — the sweetness with which secrecy 
surrounds itself, — the revel of a dance. Beyond 
that was the Spiritualism thoroughly believed in; 
so thoroughly, that it, for the time, became real, 
and substituted itself for the actual; a substitu- 
tion incongruous, illogical, but, to them, perfectly 



156 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

satisfactory. This thought of the Beyond grew in 
each of these debased minds during the time that 
would elapse before the hour of their witch-tryst. 
It grew and spread as leaven into every part of 
their nature, physical, moral and spiritual. 
Until, as they each lay down in their respective 
huts that night, they were utterly dominated by 
it, each passing more or less Into the self-induced 
state in which Boyadi was lying. 

Boyadi was not a philosopher. His intellect 
knew nothing of Systems. He had had no educa- 
tion but that which borders on the brute instincts, 
— the animal outlook for self-preservation and 
self-interest. The moral line of right and wrong 
existed but faintly. It was not difficult to read- 
just the faint line, so that wrong became right. 
And the spiritual had ever been so obvious, in 
the spirit inhabiting each great tree or rock; in 
the cry of some birds; in the very ekale-mambo 
tremor of a muscle that gave him premonitions 
of coming events, — in the flashing of a ghost 
across his path, that there was to him no essential 
difference between body and spirit. He was sure 
spirits talked to him; he was sure there were times 
when Himself had emerged from him, and had 
gone whirling with other spirits; and had come 
back again to him and to his body. Not being a 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 157 

philosopher, he had not heard, by name, of self- 
hypnotism, or of Astral bodies, or of Mahatmas, 
or of Subjective and Objective, or of Ego and 
Alter-Ego. But he knew, and felt, and believed, 
and was sure of all these as immense realities. 
He was not conscious how that, in the intense ex- 
clusive occupation by that one thought and expec- 
tation for the night, his weak little mind had 
readily succumbed to Desire and Will. And he 
was actually seeing the Unseen. 

So he was lying in his ecstasy on his hard bam- 
boo bed, unappreciative of and unrecognizing the 
rough bark wall, or the smoke of the smolder- 
ing fire on the clay floor, or the occasional rat 
that scurried across the room, and that even 
gnawed at the thick skin of the soles of his feet. 
He was not sleeping. But his physical senses were 
asleep. Had you touched him, his body was 
warm but rigid. Had you spoken to or shaken 
him, he would not have answered or resisted. 
His eyes were staring, fixed as if on some distant 
object. His breathing was quick and irregular, 
as if under suppressed excitement. As the ap- 
pointed hour drew near that excited breathing 
increased in intensity, and his limbs threw them- 
selves in spasms, not apparently voluntarily, but 
as if caused by some force ab extra. 



158 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Suddenly he rose, and seemed to move, rather 
than walk, to the low fastened door of the hut. 
. And then a Being, whom you would 
assert was Boyadl, was standing in the village 
street. You did not see the door opened. It 
was still fastened. Boyadi, if asked, would not 
have admitted that he had even touched it. Nor 
would he the next day have admitted that he had 
been out of the hut the entire night. But, there, 
Himself was standing in the middle of the long 
street of the village. 

The cool night air, playing on his face, was 
like a dash of cold water to one unconscious. 
Himself consciously moved to the open prairie, 
on whose edge the village was built. Had he 
been able to answer you, he would have told you 
that Boyadi's Body was lying asleep in his hut. 
And yet, out on the prairie, whither other Forms 
were moving toward himself for the appointed 
"Sabbath", Himself knew of a Form that was 
carrying in its one hand a torch tied to a long 
pole, and with the other was feeling in a pouch 
for Indian hemp leaves. How had these come to 
his hands? That pouch was at that very time 
hanging in his hut. That torch had been pre- 
pared and hidden yesterday. You did not see 
him pick it up. Nor had he consciously done so. 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 159 

Nor had he memory of having prepared it. He 
would tell you that Boyadi, sleeping in that hut, 
had done so yesterday; but that Himself had not. 
He had never heard anything about Cerebration, 
conscious or unconscious. 

As himself saw those other selves moving to- 
ward a common center on the prairie, again his 
blood seemed to course rapidly; heart to beat 
high, and a wild exultation made him wish to 
shout for very sense of unlimitation. But, incon- 
gruously and illogically. Himself had strength not 
to make an outcry so near the village. Those 
other selves met himself; one had a flint and 
steel; another had a long mid-rib of plantain leaf, 
its pith forced out by a long pliable bamboo ; an- 
other had the wide bowl of a native pipe which 
he fastened on to the end of that mid-rib; and 
others had torches. They smoked in successive 
long-drawn whiffs of the hashisch leaves, swal- 
lowing its smoke into their lungs. It substituted, 
for what little mental recognition and physical 
control by this time existed among them, a wild, 
joyous, exaggerated, brilliant vision of whatever 
had been in their thought just preceding, and en- 
ergized the muscular performance of whatever 
intent had been in their hearts. That intent was 
for their rendezvous in the forest, for their Spirit 



i6o IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

Dance, and for their "Feast." Unconsciously 
conscious they moved across the prairie. So 
happy ! They were no longer slaves ! They were 
not working! They were playing! And it was 
so easy to play when they were no longer 
burdened with their tired, dirty, maimed Bod- 
ies which they had left behind them as 
stolid, solid, motionless existences in their fast- 
ened huts. 

But if these Forms were not those same beings 
who had definite names when they were at their 
slave-tasks during the day-time, such as Boyadi, 
Eningwe, Bojuka, Animba, and Ziza, and the rest 
of them, of what use were the torches? And why 
should These who were not Those have any need 
for material things? It is true they did not need 
the torches for light. They could see in the dark; 
but, if you can gain their confidence to-morrow, 
they will secretly admit to you that it is a pleasure, 
even for Forms such as They, to frighten People 
by the exaggerated reports belated travelers have 
given in the villages, of strange lights, seen on the 
edge of forests, near the haunts of wild animals, 
slowly creeping over the earth and then suddenly 
mounting upward. Such reports served to keep 
the other People away from the Witches' Ground. 
Such confirmations of beliefs in Magic Power 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY i6i 

helped to throw a glamour of respect for, or at 
least fear of, those who might be suspected of 
being play-mates of these awful Fires. Persons 
who had seen the dancing fires told of them with 
bated breath. Little children standing by, who 
overheard, hid their terrified faces in their moth- 
ers' breasts. 

Perhaps those torches were not altogether use- 
less. Leopards prowl at that same hour of night. 
But leopards are afraid to attack a company, or 
one who carries a light. 

Boyadi's Self and those other Selves went on 
their way intoxicated with immensity. They 
owned everything. Everything was coming to 
them. They did not seem to walk. They glided; 
like the spirits with which they felt themselves 
talking and laughing. How they did laugh ! No 
longer suppressedly, as when near the village. As 
they entered the forest, they made it ring with 
peals of infernal joy. Were they not going to a 
Feast? The joy bubbled and plunged as a cata- 
ract from their extended mouths, leaving an 
actual foam on their lips. They were not afraid. 
Boa constrictors were there, and the deadly ce- 
rastes with its horrid, horned head, and black 
scorpions. But Boa glided away in silence; and 
Cerastes only showed its fangs and lay dormant; 



1 62 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

and scorpion withdrew to its hole. They trod on 
thorns, and did not feel the pain. Owls hooted 
at them, the fateful owl whose cry others dreaded 
as ill omen. In reply, they burst into obstreper- 
ous merriment, and imitated the hoot. Was it 
not one of their own Fraternity calls? In a dark 
glade they stopped. They built a fire. It was not 
needed for warmth. But it was necessary with 
which to compound their charm. And it would 
please the demon eyes of certain Guests who were 
even then joining them. And was not fire the 
very essence-symbol of their ghost-life? Around 
it, in a circle, seizing hands with those shadowy 
guests, they swung in their mystic dance, moving 
faster and faster to a wild u-la-lu chant, and a 
time-beat of hands clapping on hand or thigh. 
Faster they whirled. Their chant-recitative told 
of indignities their bodies had suffered. And 
their chorus burst, "E ga yuwi njuwaga" (let him 
dying die), of persons whom they hated; "E ga 
yuwi ke" (and let him die) ; of revenges they had 
been nursing. "And let him dying die." Each 
contributed to the charm they were to work. A 
leopard's claw, for power; a gazelle's gall-bag, 
for artfulness ; pieces of clothing or hair of those 
against whom they would machinate, for personal 
control; and leaves and ashes of poisonous plants, 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 163 

and bones of small animals ; all to be finally mixed 
under a favorable moon. 

Then their song rang higher; and as they 
whirled themselves in uncontrollable ecstasy, the 
Guests, whose aid they sought, came visibly to 
their fiendish imaginations. Were not these spir- 
its always around them? And did it need more, 
in order to converse and plan with them, than to 
step out of their own physicals, and meet on even 
ground those spirituals? Barred doors were 
then no obstacle. Nor did they then need to 
walk. Had they not been seen flying over tree- 
tops, destroying space and time? 

Suddenly the dance stopped, and one shouted, 
''Who has meat?" Boyadi's Self said, "I have." 
"Where?" "In Onanga's village." "Who?" 
"Onanga's son." 

And then what a shout went tearing through 
the forest! "E ! E! Onanga-e. Ewe! Wa 
juwi ! Thou art dead! Thou art dead!" In a 
rush and a whirl, as of a blast from the breath 
of a Fiend, they went scurrying, leaping, plung- 
ing. Look, are they not actually flying through 
the air, under the strong blast of that spirit of 
the Power of the Air? . . . They are sit- 
ting quietly in the street of Onanga's village. It 
is the very dead of night. The early morning 



1 64 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

hour when mankind are In their heaviest sleep; 
when the sick most readily die; when thieves go 
forth to steal; when beast of prey makes his fatal 
leap. And these Beings, crouching there in the 
street, seem no longer like human beings. Their 
very motion is maniacal; their very tones are 
snarls; every muscle of their forms is twitching 
with expectation; their faces seared and torn and 
disfigured with passion of demoniacal possession, 
scarcely recognizable as the stolid serfs, known 
during the day-time by their names as Boyadi and 
Eningwe and Bojuka and Animba and Ziza and 
the rest. 

Said one Being, "Bring the meat!" 
Onanga's son Avila was lying asleep in good 
health. Onanga was not Boyadi's master. But 
he was a hard man; and his son was haughty and 
proud. He had lately struck Boyadi, because 
Boyadi, saying, "You are not my master," had 
refused to carry a burden that son had laid on 
him. Did I say Avila was lying in his own house 
sleeping in good health? He is, and he is not. 
Verily, a Body, called Avila, is lying in his bed, 
restless and in pain„ And a Form, which Onanga 
himself would assert is Avila's, is lying in the vil- 
lage street. Which is Avila? And how did this 
Form come thus suddenly into the street? The 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 165 

door to Avila's house is closed, and fastened in- 
side. No one has been seen going in or out of that 
house. Boyadi perhaps could tell. How? Boyadi 
says Himself does not regard doors and fasten- 
ings. And they are sitting now silent, on and about 
the Avila-form in the middle of the street. They 
are not afraid they shall be seen. They are not 
afraid of anything. The black silent night, to or- 
dinary beings, is fearful; and the lonely scream 
of a night bird; the sudden bellow of a hippopota- 
mus; the mournful cry of a lemur, would startle 
others; but not them. They are greedily putting 
into their horrid mouths something phosphores- 
cent which they seem to pull by handfuls from 
that helpless form. When they have gorged 
themselves, they wiped their lips, and their lips 
are red, as with blood! Boyadi snatches a Thing 
from that Form; against his so doing the others 
make only a slight protest. You are uncertain why 
they protest. Whether from a little sense of pity, 
which even Infernals may have; or from jealousy 
that he had appropriated that particular Thing. 

Suddenly Boyadi disappears; at the same mo- 
ment the Form disappears. Then Boyadi re- 
turned to the now standing group. And one, 
looking eastward, suddenly cried, "Nyalangwe! 
The morning comes!" 



1 66 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

The ecstasy was passing. Reaction will soon 
drag back to reality. An undefined sense of fear 
gave wings to their feet; and they stealthily, yet 
rapidly, stole back separately to their huts. . . . 

On the morrow, there was a great outcry in 
Onanga's village. Avila lay tossing in pain. No 
coherent words; no reply to inquiry. Mourning 
friends crowded the house. The news was car- 
ried by swift messengers to distant villages of re- 
mote relatives, who hastened to show their family 
unity by coming to look on the dying one. For 
the native uganga said he was dying. But of 
what disease? So sudden in its coming! So ob- 
scure in its symptoms ! Because obscure, all the 
more reason why it should find its diagnosis in 
the region of Witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft is sus- 
pected! It is announced! It is certain! 

The doctor has looked into his magic mirror, 
and has seen several Things eating Avila's life. 
But those Things did not eat all of his life, for 
Avila still breathes and speaks words. But it 
is not Avila Himself that speaks. If Himself was 
in Avila's body himself would speak proper 
words. So, evidently one of those Things has 
possession of Avila's Heart-Life. Avila will die 
if the heart-life is not given back. Let there be 
a witchcraft investigation, to find whether that 



A PSYCHIC MYSTERY 167 

Thing was a person, and who that person is; for 
that Thing looked like a man. If discovered, the 
wizard shall be put to death with torture. 

Boyadi, Eningwe, Bojuka, Animba, Ziza and 
the others were again owners of their human 
names; and they looked a little guiltily at each 
other, as the witchcraft suspicions began to crys- 
tallize and localize. They had only a hazy mem- 
ory of that night of demoniac intoxication. But 
they were quite certain they were not now flying 
over tree-tops. Some had a dim memory that 
they had protested to Boyadi about a certain 
Thing. But Boyadi was glad for Avila's sickness. 
He would be pleased to hear of his death. 

Days went by, and Avila grew weaker and 
weaker. As the actual search for the person who 
had "bewitched" him began, the Fraternity be- 
came frightened. 

Again they called a meeting; with the same in- 
tense desire and expectation; but now, for a re- 
versal of the charm, and for the return of Avila's 
heart-life, to save their own lives before suspicion 
should fall on them. They met with the same 
ecstasy, not now for revenge, but for self-preser- 
vation; with the same intense concentration of 
thought; the same vivid realization of Spiritual 
aid and Spiritual presence, only possible where be- 



1 68 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

lief in Spiritual Beings fills every daily thought 
from earliest childhood. There followed, too, the 
same wild joy that came with their sense of re- 
lease from physical limitations. And a diligent 
search for curatives, with which to antagonize 
some of the contents of the former charm. But 
there was no Feast in view. They said, "Boyadi, 
give It back. If we are accused, we will not die 
alone. We will name you. Give It back." They 
scattered to their own places. And Boyadi, still 
intoxicated with his sense of the possession of a 
Great Thing, but somewhat burdened with the 
responsibility of It, moved noiselessly away in the 
shadow to Onanga's village. When the watchers 
at Avila's bedside, oppressed with sleep, no 
longer watched, he entered. He rubbed some- 
thing on Avila's side, and laid a powder in Avila's 
nostrils, and squeezed a juice into Avila's lips, 
and pressed a soft red Thing into the pores of 
Avila's forehead and chest. And Avila slept a 
sleep of health, and awoke next day, fever gone, 
mind clear, and on the road to recovery, to the 
joy of his relatives; and to the glory of the doc- 
tor who had so ably checkmated the machinations 
of the witches ! But there was a mystery about 
the sudden recovery that he did not try to explain. 
Perhaps Boyadi could have enlightened him. 



IX 

VOICES OF AN AFRICAN TROPIC NIGHT 

Journeying by boat on the Ogowe, I heard a 
strange outcry in the forest; so strange, that I 
was not sure, at the moment, whether it came 
from man or beast or bird. My crew told me it 
was a bird. I expressed my surprise, and re- 
marked to one of them who understood the word 
that the sounds were Hke those of a person shriek- 
ing in hysteria. He laughed, and said it was 
somewhat so ; that the bird, startled at some noise, 
cries out with a series of screams each louder and 
in quicker succession, until it falls, temporarily 
choked by its own emotion. I then remarked on 
the variety of noises heard by day. The man 
then asked me whether I had noticed the greater 
variety heard at night. 

When living at the seaside on Corisco Island, 
on my first arrival there in 1861, among the day- 
sounds, I had been actually distressed by the 
booming of the waves, day and night, as they 

169 



I70 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

dashed themselves into certain caves on the west- 
ern shore. The rocky head-lands of the island 
were composed of horizontal strata of several 
kinds of rock of different degrees of hardness. 
The softer strata had been worn away, making 
caves with entrances eight or ten feet high, and 
twelve or fifteen feet in depth. As the waves at 
high tide swung in on the top of the Atlantic 
roll, they suddenly compressed themselves and 
the air in those caves with an explosion like a 
cannon shot. At night, at first, my sleep was 
much broken by those violent reports. But subse- 
quently, I became used to and ceased to notice 
them. 

There were other sounds, by both day and 
night, both on the coast and in the interior, that 
came from human sources, especially the drum 
and song that always accompanied the dances of 
the natives. There is scarcely any melody in 
those songs; they are in unison, in octaves of the 
several registers of the human voice. But the 
drum-beats are in exact time. 

My boatman's remark drew my attention to 
night-sounds of the interior. Not all of those 
sounds would be heard by all persons; few would 
voluntarily stay awake all night to listen. But 
I often had occasion in my pioneering, as I glided 



AN AFRICAN TROPIC NIGHT 171 

on the river in my boat or canoe, in night jour- 
neys, or, more markedly, in the lonely watchings 
by a sick bed-side. On the journeys, perhaps my 
attention might be distracted by the songs or con- 
versation of the crew, or the click of paddles. But 
In a silent room, with the shaded light, on a lonely 
watch by a sick friend's bed-side, there was much 
in the situation to accentuate whatever sounds 
came from the outside. 

As the invariable six o'clock equatorial sun 
sets, all the lower creation, especially the Birds, 
hastily prepare for the approach of darkness. 
They are coming from their feeding-places, and 
are flying unerringly to their nests; hundreds of 
the red-tailed gray parrots found only in Africa, 
squawking in the labored flight of their quickly 
beating wings; Toucans or Horn-bills hoarsely 
cawing; swallows twittering, with crowds of other 
birds, among them the almost silent pelicans and 
herons. By 6:30 the day is done. And by 7 
p. M., the night is dark, except in the moonlight 
portion of the month. But the darkness is orna- 
mented with the glint of Fire-flies. Some natives 
say that these are disembodied human spirits, who 
have lost their way on the path to the Other 
World, and are vainly waving their lanterns, if 
haply they may find the road. There are the hum- 



172 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

ming Mosquitoes, not prevalent everywhere, but. 
In low lying districts, densely so. And the stri- 
dent Katy-dids, contradicting each other, not in 
native Bantu, but In English, that they "did" and 
they "didn't." The Bats, that all day had been 
hanging head downwards by their wing-claws, are 
out, with the querulous cries ejected from the ever- 
open mouth of their vampire-like heads. They 
are gnawing at the ripe fruit on the mangoe trees, 
or dashing with angular flight in pursuit of in- 
sects. Often, these, attracted by a light In a 
room, troop through an open window to circle In 
the vicinity of the lamp. The bat. In his headlong 
pursuit, follows, but is dazed by the light; the 
alarm he causes to the human occupants of the 
room, lest in his blundering movements he en- 
tangle himself in their hair, Is probably equaled 
by his own anxiety to escape from the room. 
Frogs, In the marshes, ponds, and shallow 
streams, are croaking all over the gamut, from 
bass and baritone, through alto and soprano, to 
shrill falsetto. Their noise is bearable, since we 
know that they are man's ally by their feeding on 
the malaria-carrying mosquito, their neighbors In 
the same pool. 

About 8 P. M., listen to that strange cry! The 
wail of the "Transformed Matricide" which, 



AN AFRICAN TROPIC NIGHT 173 

when I first heard it, struck me as the most un- 
bearably sad sound I had ever heard. But, sub- 
sequently, the impression of the intensity of the 
sadness of that wail diminished, as I became ac- 
customed to it. Its long low sob swells into a 
crescendo for several seconds, and then for sev- 
eral seconds in a diminuendo, dying away, to be 
repeated a few minutes later. Natives said it was 
a Snail. I could not believe that. In successive 
years, I have supposed it to be a Bird or a Lemur, 
or possibly a Chameleon. It is still a mystery to 
me. I can think only of the native legend that 
that creature was a child transformed to a snail as 
a punishment for having killed its mother; and 
that, in remorse, it is always crying, "Ah me! I 
killed my mother!" 

There is a herd of Hippopotami coming from 
the shallows of the river where they had been 
lying all day, to feed on the grasses by the river 
bank and on open islands, or preferably on the 
plantations of the natives. The leader is snorting 
defiance to other males; or, a pair of them fight- 
ing are tearing the night air with their furious 
roars of anger and pain, the note being a com- 
bined bellow of a bull and a snort of a horse, 
magnified many times. It is terrifying to meet 
these open-mouthed beasts when one is in a boat 



174 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

or canoe on the river. They are met with mostly 
only when the water is low, and they lie in the 
very channels where the boats must go. On land, 
there is some hope of escape by flight from a wild 
beast. In boat or canoe, one is helpless in the 
presence of that fearfully wide mouth that can 
crush a canoe like an eggshell or bite out a boat's 
side, or from below upheave it and overset it. 
They are difficult to kill. A bullet must be very 
accurately planted in its head, or the wounded 
beast becomes doubly furious. But its flesh is 
tender, making very good beefsteak. They are 
more safely hunted by lying in ambush near their 
runways on land as they come ashore at night. 

There are blood-curdling yells and shouts and 
screams of a troop of Chimpanzees. But, when 
one is assured that they are only chimpanzees, 
there is room for humor. One may laugh, if one 
thinks of them as a howling mob of school-boys, 
striking, fighting, protesting, pleading, whooping, 
objurgating and shouting in either defiance or vic- 
tory, the while that all these sounds for a little 
space cease, and then is heard only the whimper- 
ing of the beaten ones in their enforced subjec- 
tion. 

About 9 p. M., a Lemur, from its tree-top, an- 
nounces that he is about to descend for his nightly 



AN AFRICAN TROPIC NIGHT 175 

raid in search of food. His cry is three sobs, as- 
cending in the scale, repeated several times, as he 
climbs down the bark of the tree, and ceases as he 
reaches the ground. 

Later in the evening, by 10 o^clock, all these 
sounds either cease or become fewer. But what 
of them are yet heard seem the more distinct, 
because of the otherwise surrounding quiet. Oc- 
casionally there will be a Monkey's angry chatter, 
because of his sleep having been broken by a play- 
ful companion pulling his tail or tweaking his ear. 
Or, some alarmed big Bird croaks, its sleep having 
been disturbed by a restless mate, or a passing 
traveler, or a broken tree branch. 

And now come the Beasts of Prey! There is 
the agonized scream of a wild bird or a domestic 
fowl seized by a Genet, the common "bush-cat." 
This little leopard-like cat itself has only a small 
mew, but it makes its presence known by its vic- 
tim's dying cry as it gnaws at its throat. 

A Leopard's cry is startling, as of a human be- 
ing in pain. A goat or dog or even human be- 
ings are deceived and attracted by it to their 
death. Fortunately for the safety of these lower 
animals, with their power of scent greater than 
of human beings, the very pronounced odor of the 
leopard, carried by the wind, is a warning, of 



176 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

which the lower animals avail themselves for 
flight and escape. Natives, in their belief of me- 
tempsychosis, think that some evil-disposed people 
are able to change themselves into the form of a 
leopard, acquiring all the power and agility and 
tastes of the beast, the while they retain their 
human intelligence and responsibility. It is be- 
lieved that many murders are committed by these 
so-called "man-leopards." 

Then comes the Midnight Rest of all creation: 
the Silence of the Night, as time's bell strikes the 
final death of the day, and there is a short inter- 
mission in the chorus of the Night Animals, that 
is broken only by an occasional solo; the hoarse 
quack of some startled Water-fowl; or the gur- 
gling bark of the Gavial-crocodile, plunging from 
Its sleep on a log into the water; or the blood- 
chilling hoot of an Owl. With what supersti- 
tious fear the natives regard it! If your native 
friend is sitting with you at the time, do not say, 
"Owl." Do not even refer to the fact that you 
heard it! 

The sounds during the forenight had some- 
times been alarming. But this dark Silence of the 
Midnight Is even awful. 

Human life, physiologists tell us, reaches its 
lowest ebb of vitality about i A. M. "The dolo- 



AN AFRICAN TROPIC NIGHT 177 

rous weird hour when Fear stalks abroad, and 
sick people die." Watching by the sick, there 
has come to me the Death-wail from some other 
adjacent village. When I first heard that wail, 
long ago, I thought it the most utterly sad sound 
I had ever heard, excepting the mysterious cry of 
that transformed matricide. I have become accus- 
tomed to the latter; and, pathetic as it is, I am 
no longer overcome by it. But this Deathwail, 
though I have since learned that there is little sin- 
cerity in it, still affects me in a most depressing 
manner. It is the outcry of all oriental mourners. 
Commencing with a sharp outburst, before even 
the life of the sick one is actually extinct, the cry 
is repeated In a series of short agonized screams; 
then there are frenzied apostrophes, and plead- 
ings for the dead to come back, renunciations of 
all hope of ever again seeing any joy, and long- 
drawn-out wails that bear down into one's heart 
with their utter pathos. They are unspeakably 
sad, and unforgettably haunting in their depress- 
ing effect. 

About 3 A. M.^ almost all the animals, whose 
voices were heard in the previous hours of the 
night (except of those like the owl and leopard, 
that are especially beasts and birds of prey) issue 
forth again to their feeding and drinking places. 



178 IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

The domestic Fowls and a few Wild Fowls give 
their usual forewarning (the "first cock-crowing") 
of the morning; not of the coming of the sun 
(that is to be repeated later) but of the light of 
at least the one star whose name all natives know, 
Nya-la-ngwa, the Morning Star. 

As 5 A. M. approaches, Elephants trumpet, 
Gorillas roar, Hippopotami snort, and Antelopes 
bark, as they quarrel at their feeding places. Most 
distressingly for the native women, these places 
are often at their gardens. Some times the de- 
structions of one night sweep away the labor and 
hope of food of six months. For this reason, the 
women keep several gardens in succession, to save 
their families from starvation. 

Before 5 130 A. M. a Partridge, the Ngwai, with 
red legs and red bill, pipes its announcement of 
the coming sun. It never speaks during the day- 
time, except on some dark days when it mistakes 
the time of day. And the Lemur that came sob- 
bing, climbing down its tree at 9 o'clock last night, 
climbs up, sobbing again. 

At the regular 6 A. M. sunrise, the forest deni- 
zens, especially the Beasts, subside into quietness; 
but the Birds (besides the domestic ones) that 
live in the vicinity of the villages, twitter, and 
chirp, and whistle, and try to sing. But scarcely 



AN AFRICAN TROPIC NIGHT 179 

any of them, except the Mocking-bird, have a con- 
tinued melody, or a succession of sounds long 
enough to dignify them as a song. 

The social Weaver-birds, in their fear of 
snakes, venture to live near mankind. They 
weave, from strips of plantain leaves, their nests 
pendent from the fronds of the coco and other 
palms near the village huts. Snakes would not 
only find difficulty from their bodies' weight on 
those swaying fronds, but the spines between the 
bases of the leaflets would wound their bodies 
in an attempt at crawling over them. These 
weaver-birds, more distinctly than even the do- 
mestic fowls, are the connecting link between night 
and day. They are entirely silent at night, but, 
starting with their welcome of the sun, they twit- 
ter all the day. The females are very plainly 
feathered, but the males are brilliant, resembling 
orioles in coloring. With them are also some 
perfectly black ones, which the natives say are 
the "slaves" of the others. I suppose them to be 
a friendly species living in peace with them, as is 
known to be the habit of some other birds and ani- 
mals. 

To a nervous person, the sitting all night al- 
most alone in the presence of these various voices 
would be very trying and even impossible to be 



i8o IN AN ELEPHANT CORRAL 

borne without suffering. For myself, these 
sounds, while they were sometimes alarming, often 
depressing, were never exhausting on my calmer 
nerves. I listened. And I learned a lesson: 
"These all wait upon Him that He may give them 
their meat in due season." Those voices of the 
night, of which we human beings, in our sleep, are 
unconscious, may teach us anxious children of the 
day a lesson of trust in the Everlasting Arms and 
that Loving Wisdom that guides and directs and 
cares for the least of His creatures. 



lEG 28 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



030 017 962 9 












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